Discovery Channel India - October 2014

TRANSMISSION ERROR 42 PUNK IT UP 58 TOO MUCH RADIATION?

MUSICAL REBELLION

KILLER INSTINCTS 72 THE CRIMINAL MIND

SURVIVAL TACTICS 86 REAL LIFE CASTAWAYS

OCTOBER 2014 I `150

C H A N N E L M AG A Z I N E I N D I A

CALLS OF THE WILD ANIMAL TALK DECODED PG 28

EDITOR'S LETTER

C H A N N E L M AG A Z I N E I N D I A Editor-in-Chief$URRQ3XULH Group Chief Executive Officer Ashish Bagga Group Synergy and Creative Officer .DOOL3XULH Editorial Director-DPDO6KDLNK Managing Editor Abha Srivastava

OF SCIENCE AND ITS WELL-KEPT SECRETS

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There is ample evidence around to tell us that nature still holds some rather well-kept secrets. In this issue, you will come across the story of a young, very beautiful researcher named Margaret Howe, who lived in a semi-flooded house with a dolphin, Peter. The experiment was created by a neuroscientist, who believed that constant human interaction could teach a dolphin how to speak. As time passed, it became evident that Peter wanted not a school mate, but a mate, and started aggressively wooing pretty Margaret, and brought the project to an end. The good attempt may have failed, but it did throw up a poignant question: Isn’t a signal to mate a form of communication as well? Cats mew only to humans, never to each other. Chickens have a remarkable vocabulary and farm owners will insist they respond to a ‘Good Morning’. And dogs, well, my canine-crazy friends insist dogs can be more human than people sometimes are. Despite giant strides in communication, animal talk remains a vastly inexact science that continues to surprise and excite. Our cover story this month (p28) takes a close look at what makes communication amongst wild creatures so hard to capture,

with a focus on what I call Jungle Gossip: what is it that these creatures talk amongst themselves? Are they talking about us? Listen in for some laughs. Other thought-moulding features in this magazine will provoke and inform. One story takes us into the world of criminal profiling (p72) to study what makes serial killers turn to gore. And in another, rebelliousness of the human mind finds a softer spot in Punk Rock (p58), which has gone from being socially unacceptable to coolly adventurous. Yes, nature continues to withhold from science some rather well-kept mysteries. Our joy lies in uncovering them for you with aplomb.

VOLUME 1 NUMBER 9

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04 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

Jamal Shaikh Editorial Director twitter.com/JamalShaikh instagram.com/JamalShaikh

CONTENTS ISSUE 10/14

DEPARTMENTS

FRONTIERS

12

NO MORE PANIC

12

Amnesty International’s new app ensures that activists have a new saviour from torture NEWS

INDIA’S ALS HERO

14

Is ALS really a Western world phenomenon? Or are we missing out on something... SCIENCE

TOUGH LITTLE BEAR

16

Though tiny in size, the water bear looks monstrous. And it is pretty much immortal

20 22

THE TWO SIDES OF

COFFEE

20

It’s widespread. It’s legal. It’s very much a drug you sip every morning. Hello coffee

24 16

TECH

ONBOARD MAYHEM

22

From live eels to dead electronics, a list of all that you cannot carry on an aircraft

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE WOW 10 'WANTED: ELECTRICAL PYLON SERVICERS. VERTIGO SUFFERERS NEED NOT APPLY'

NEWS 13 ADD SOME ZING TO YOUR SARTORIAL STYLE AND WEAR JEANS ACTUALLY CLAWED BY LIONS

NO SNOOZE, YOU LOSE 16 MISS OUT ON SLEEP, AND THINGS CAN GO NUCLEAR, VERY FAST

THE GRID 13 WE DON'T CARE THAT SHE'S OLD. THIS CHINESE BANK JANITOR (AND HER MOP) NEEDS HER OWN ACTION MOVIE

IN CONVERSATION WITH DARWIN 18 THE WORM-LOVING, OWL EATING, BACKGAMMON-OBSESSED SCIENTIST GETS COMPETITIVE IN THE HOTSEAT

A HUSH HUSH AFFAIR 22 WE LOVE THE LEAN MEAN MACHINE. BUT DO WE LOVE A HARLEY DAVIDSON WITHOUT THE TRADEMARK ROAR?

06 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

CHAPLIN'S BANANA 24 LIFE TIPS FROM FAMOUS FIGURES, INCLUDING HEARTENING DIET ADVICE FROM AN ITALIAN BOMBSHELL WHAT'S ON 102 INDIA’S CULTURAL PRACTICES, THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH AND ACTIVE VOLCANOES

42

08 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

58

86

FEATURES ISSUE 10/14 COVER STORY

CALLS OF THE WILD

28

There’s more to frogs than just hopping about as each croak denotes a fascinating communication tool. Listen in as animals talk to each other SCI-TECH

RADIATION

42

From sun light to your microwave, radiation is a part of your regular life. Just how bad is it and is there any escape at all?

72

28

CULTURE

FUNKY PUNK

58

Sex Pistols swore through it and Nirvana promised freedom... Punk as an expression continues to protest consumerism and oppression PSYCHOLOGY

KILLER MINDS

72

Is being abandoned and abused as a child a definite precursor to turning into a serial killer? ADVENTURE

CASTAWAY

86

If left to fend for yourself on a desert island for days on end, you’ll need wits, coconuts, crabs and dollops of attitude to survive, say real life survivors

09 OCTOBER 2014

It’s just another day at the office for these Chinese workmen in Anhui province, dangling dozens of metres in the air as millions of volts thrum between their legs. Servicing these electricity pylons is a piece of cake compared to jobs some of their countrymen are faced with. The pattern seems to be fairly standard: year after year, the press pops up with articles asking, “Is this the most dangerous job in the world?” More often than not, that job is based in China. In 2006, that infamous honour was laid squarely on the dusty shoulders of the coal mining industry. State figures revealed that 4,746 miners had died on the job that year. As many pointed out, at the time that was 1,100 more people than the US military had lost from fighting in the Iraq War. Compared to toiling in cramped, gritty and potentially fatal underground conditions, this fresh air undertaking over the lush farmland of Anhui seems almost heavenly. 10 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

PHOTO: REUTERS

HANGING ON BY A WIRE

WOW

11 OCTOBER 2014

FRONTIERS

ILLUSTRATION: QUENTIN GABRIEL

ISSUE 10/14

PANIC BUTTON! A SECRET ALARM THAT CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE IN 5 QUICK SECONDS Are those armed cops storming in to help this stranded human rights activist, or to harm her? Amnesty International hopes it will be the former. They have developed a nifty Panic Button app, which turns the power button of a phone into a secret alarm. Once pressed five times in five seconds, it sends a pre-written alert to three contacts, allowing them to scramble a response which saves the activist from unlawful detainment, torture or abduction. Using the phone’s exterior power switch allows a user to discreetly trigger the alert, even inside a pocket. The app itself is designed

12 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

to look as unobtrusive as possible, so security forces don’t stumble across it. But there is a weakness. Like many forms of technology, the tool can be a double-edged sword. If the country practices ‘mass telecommunications monitoring and interception’, the app may also reveal information about your location, or trusted contacts that could put both of you at risk, the NGO warns. Future versions hope to include live video transmission and the ability to shut down the user’s email and contact list. So look again — are those armed guards there to help, or to harm innocent citizens?

NEWS

THE GRID

EYES

ZOOS

PAIN

A S I A- PAC I F I C

AMERICAS

STRANGE AND SERIOUS EVENTS FROM ACROSS THE WORLD EUROPE

MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA

MIRROR HEALING

TOUCHING IMAGES

Cambodia has the highest ratio of amputees in the world. They are also victims of something called the phantom pain which is experienced in missing limbs. Now a Canadian amputee is helping victims deal with this. He places a mirror opposite the healthy limb, tricking the patient’s brain into thinking both are whole again. Doing this regularly can help quell phantom pain, which though sometimes extreme, is still not well understood.

Photoshop is not just for beauty magazines and tweaking your selfies. “My daughter recently passed away after a long battle in the children’s hospital,” a father from Ohio posted on Reddit. Her entire short life, she had been hooked up to tubes. Could the online community rework a photo of his child without them? The response was overwhelming, with countless sketches and shots pouring in, as well as messages of support for the family.

BRUISE-SUIT Paraplegic paralympians cannot tell if they’ve been injured in their numb extremities. A ‘bruise suit’ developed by students at Imperial College London harnesses pressure-sensitive film, sewed into modified sports clothing. The wearer can then identify injured spots visually, as impacted areas bloom red. Though still a prototype, the suit will no doubt be effective for high-impact sports such as wheelchair rugby, which has earned the nickname ‘Murderball’.

WILD LIFE FASHION

OBESITY VS FERTILITY

CUDDLE BUDDIES

LICK-O-SAURUS REX

Hipsters, pay attention. You can now buy jeans that have been clawed by lions, tigers, and bears. Oh my. It’s the brainchild of a volunteer group in Hitachi City, Japan, collaborating with the local zoo. Donate to help pay for the zoo’s renovation, and some highly-distressed denim is yours. Images of the animals show that they really get into it, tearing into the pairs of jeans, which are wrapped around tires, logs and balls with gusto.

America’s captive elephants are fatties with low fertility, which could mean fewer zoo elephants being born, says a new study. Scientists at the Wildlife Conservation Research Centre, examined the butts of elephants in photos, ranking them from skinniest to fattest. Forty percent of the captive animals were deemed ‘fat’, while most wild beasts were judged as ‘skinny’. It is said that African elephants may disappear from zoos in 50 years.

Linda and Dusja are BFF’s (Best Furry Friends), which may be surprising considering Linda is a lynx and Dusja is a domestic cat. The relationship kicked off after the small stray wandered into the lynx enclosure at St Petersburg’s zoo, sniffing around for food. Instead of mauling the intruder, the lynx adopted her as a buddy, leading to the wily street cat now becoming a part of the exhibit. Images of the cute pair have since spread online.

When we get married, Cape Town’s Natural History Museum is definitely doing our invites. The South African institution wanted a fun way to publicise their new dinosaur exhibit. With a limited communications budget, they wondered how to get kids excited about the event? So they sent blank biscuits to schoolchildren around town, with instructions to lick through the icing. When they did, they uncovered a dino fossil (above).

EYE-SORE LENSES Given that opticians don’t recommend wearing contacts for more than eight hours a day, no good could come from the Taiwanese girl who left her disposable set in for six whole months — even when swimming. By the time the 23-year-old was admitted to a Taipei hospital, her eyeballs had been eaten away by an agressive amoeba infection. Contact lens wearers are much more likely to be exposed to eye diseases than non-lens wearers.

STARE WARE If your mind hasn’t wandered at your desk at work during a sleepy afternoon, you’re not human. For everyone else, there’s a solution, though you may not like it. Researchers from the University of Notre Dame and the University of Memphis have developed software which tracks eye movements, and can predict mind-wandering with up to 72 percent accuracy. The inventors say their software could be used in education or for air traffic control.

NIGHT SIGHT Analogue night vision goggles worn by fighter pilots can weigh about 500 grams. Which sounds lightweight, but they get nine times heavier when a pilot accelerates to 9G. British defence firm BAE Systems has created the Striker II smart helmet, which includes an HDdisplay mounted in the visor as well as night vision, thanks to a digital camera mounted on the helmet. It improves on what pilots call the “mark one eyeball”, or human eye.

BILLION-DOLLAR BLACK GOLD A report finds that

The “mop” cop

IT’S NOT BEEN A GOOD TIME FOR CHINESE CRIMINALS. STAFF AND CUSTOMERS IN SHANGHAI WERE TERRIFIED WHEN A CLEAVER-WIELDING ROBBER HELD A BANK TELLER HOSTAGE. BUT AS HE ESCAPED, THE BANK’S CLEANER, 64-YEAR-OLD GU JINFANG, CHARGED AT HIM WITH HER MOP. “I WASN’T AFRAID,” GU LATER RECALLED IN A PRESS INTERVIEW, “I FOLLOWED HIM WHEREVER HE RAN.” THE THIEF TOOK TO CRIME AFTER RACKING UP GAMBLING DEBTS OF US$650,000, BETTING ON THE WORLD CUP.

Nigeria tops the countries in the world that are most affected by oil theft. It is estimated that about 400,000 barrels of oil are stolen per day, amounting to a staggering US$1.7 billion revenue loss per month and US$20.4 billion annually. The loss represents a 7.7 percent loss to Nigeria’s GDP every year. Mexico, Iraq, Russia and Indonesia followed Nigeria on the list. Mexican oil theft soared by 1,548 percent between 2000 to 2013.

13 OCTOBER 2014

NEWS ALL FOR A CAUSE

Meet the man who pushed the ALS cause in India 3 years ago, much before the ice bucket challenge

DCM: Why did the diagnosis take so long? Dev: I have realized doctors from the best hospitals across are not familiar with ALS. AIIMS was not the only place we went to! ALS patients in India don’t know where to go, they don’t know who the experts are… There aren’t any dedicated clinics. There is a basic lack of awareness and that spurred me on to start my page, ALS India.

At the age of 20, Dev Chaudhary decided to take on Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). He’d just lost his grandfather to the disorder and had witnessed the lack of diagnosis, awareness and treatment in India. So he started ALS India, a platform on Facebook, to help patients and their families connect with each other and create a support group. Today, at 23, the Hisar-based advocate is working towards getting his organisation registered as an NGO and launch a website which will answer questions about ALS and help patients battle the disorder.

DCM: How have you seen ALS from such close quarters? Dev: I lost my grandfather, Chaudhary Vinay Kumar, to ALS in November 2010.

DCM: What are the physical manifestations of ALS? Dev: With my grandfather, it started with progressive lack of sensation on the left foot. Slowly, he developed a limp. Soon, this lack of sensation spread to the entire leg and then gradually to the entire body. By the end, he could only use his eyes and the finger tips of his right hand.  The disease grips your entire body, though your eyes, brain and heart are not affected. And that makes it worse as the patient is very aware of his degeneration. ALS has a very quick and tight grip… DCM: Was it difficult to diagnose? Dev: Yes it was. We were shocked that an entire panel of doctors at AIIMS in Delhi couldn’t diagnose the problem

DCM: What were your first thoughts when the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge happened? Dev: I followed the Ice Bucket Challenge very

Dev Chaudhary with his grandfather, who succumbed to ALS after suffering for 3 years

closely. Hundreds of people have engaged with our page since then and everyone has been messaging and mailing us, requesting information on ALS as well how and where to donate. People have started reading about ALS and this will help create awareness. Social media, TV channels

and newspapers are talking about it, so by default ALS is being discussed. Now if people have information about the symptoms, they will be better prepared to deal with it.

DCM: People in India still believe it is a Western world phenomenon. Your thoughts… Dev: I think this is due to relatively fewer cases of ALS in India. Plus, India has poor medical facilities and diseases like Cancer, AIDS etc are so all-consuming and widely spread that something like ALS is just not talked about. Yes, there are fewer cases of ALS in India but the fact is that often it is confused with other ailments so the treatment is delayed, which proves fatal. DCM: What needs to be set right in India? Dev: Most ALS patients here die even before the diagnosis. There is no pan India ALS registry, unlike in the US where ALS patients can register centrally. There aren’t any awareness campaigns or NGOs to spread the word about ALS. There aren’t even any dedicated clinics. Till people know what the disease is all about and its symptoms, they can’t seek help. ALS patients need support groups to share their experiences. This disorder can quickly propel you towards depression as you can experience your body giving up on you. So reaching out is important, which brings us back to basic awareness and knowledge about the disease!

YOUR AGE WHEN YOUR TEETH EMERGE THIRD MOLAR (OR "WISDOM TOOTH")

17-21

SECOND MOLAR

11-13 12-13

(LOWER) AND

(UPPER)

14 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

CANINE

9-10 11-12

(LOWER)AND

(UPPER)

SECOND PREMOLAR

LATERAL INCISOR

CENTRAL INCISOR

(LOWER) AND

(LOWER) AND

(LOWER) AND

(UPPER)

(UPPER)

(UPPER)

11-12 10-12

7-8 8-9

6-7 7-8

FIRST MOLAR

6-7

THERE ARE

32

TEETH IN A COMPLETE ADULT SET

PHOTO: DREAMSTIME

INDIA’S ALS HERO

initially. By the time they did, we had lost precious time. My grandfather lived with ALS for almost 3 years.

SCIENCE HIT THE HAY

INSOMNIAC? Tough Little Bear 5 WAYS IT CAN TOTALLY RUIN YOUR DAY BY CHIN WEI LIEN

Sleep well to live a healthy life 5

2

FORGETFULNESS

DEATH

REM sleep, or dream sleep, helps cement the memories you made during the day.

Data from three largescale epidemiological studies found sleeping under five hours a night increases risk of mortality by roughly 15 percent. Not surprising, considering it boosts your cancer, diabetes and heart disease risk.

4

What is the most resilient animal you can think of? Try the tardigrade, more lovingly known as a waterbear or moss piglet. Waterbears are water-dwelling, segmented micro-animals with eight cute little legs (look at those feet!) which can be found nearly everywhere around the world. In fact, a new species was just found chilling in Antarctica. But do not be fooled by its adorable demeanour. These creatures are hard as nails and can survive pretty much everything nature, and curious humans, throw at them. Boiling water? Check. Extreme heat of up to 150 degrees Celcius? Check. Extreme cold of minus 273 degrees Celcius? Check. Intense radiation? Check. All five planet-wide mass extinctions on Earth since the Big Bang? Also check. These aquatic invertebrates are so tough because, when faced with extreme conditions, they can dry out completely, replacing almost all the water in their bodies with a sugar called trehalose. In this highly dehydrated state, waterbears can actually survive for 120 years. Beat that, Superman! Eager to prove that these little fellows can be killed, a Swedish researcher named KIngemar Jonsson from Kristianstad University College launched a petri dish of waterbears into space (yes, space) on the FOTON-M3 spacecraft in 2007 and exposed them to vacuum, high levels of ultraviolet radiation and even cosmic rays. The waterbears did die eventually — but only after 10 days of exposure.

1 A 2012 review study found that people who get less than six hours of sleep a night are more likely to be overweight. DISASTER

3

DRINKING

Alcohol use is more prevalent among those that sleep poorly. Many insomniacs think alcohol is a sleep aid, as it’s a mild sedative. But your Bourbon might lead to bad nights. After a few hours, it starts to stimulate parts of the brain that cause arousal.

The Challenger explosion, Chernobyl, the Three Mile Island meltdown and the Exxon Valdez oil spill are some of the tragedies that may be at least partly due to sleepdeprived workers.

Other Near-Immortal Creatures TREE WETA

What is it? It’s a bug with a special protein that keeps its blood flowing even in deep freeze. When spring comes, it simply crawls back out of the ground like a zombie. How do we kill it? A well placed boot heel LUNGFISH

Top tip: Experts say dreaming during a 20-minute nap is a sure sign that you need to catch up on the Zzzs

16 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

What is it? A freshwater fish that burrows itself into the ground during a dry spell. There, it produces a mucus-like cocoon that preserves the moisture in its body for up to six months. How do we kill it? Fire IMMORTAL JELLYFISH

What is it? It’s a jellyfish that reverts to a state of infancy on a cellular level when it gets old. This process repeats itself ad infinitum. How do we kill it? You can’t

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES (KRISTEN STEWART); KYLE CASSIDY (NEIL GAIMAN), ICONS: THE NOUN PROJECT, EALANCHELIYAN S (EYES), SIMON CHILD (FU MANCHU), BLAKE THOMPSON (LIPS), ILLUSTRATION: BEN MOUNSEY (EXTINCTION, EXTERMINATION)

FAT

SCIENCE TIPS FOR BETTER TIPS

33%

IN ONE STUDY, FEMALE WAITRESSES WHO ADDED A SMILEY FACE TO THE BILL INCREASED THEIR TIPS BY 33 PERCENT

12%

ANOTHER STUDY FOUND CUSTOMERS LEFT AN AVERAGE TIP OF 12 PERCENT OF THE BILL WHEN NOT TOUCHED BY SERVERS

0.5 SECONDS

THIS TIP JUMPED TO 14 PERCENT WHEN CUSTOMERS WERE TOUCHED FOR HALF A SECOND ON THE SHOULDER, AND 17 PERCENT WHEN TOUCHED TWICE ON THE PALM OF THE HAND, WHEN GIVEN CHANGE

IN CONVERSATION WITH

Quote Unquote

Charles Darwin Animal lovers might not love the father of evolutionary biology after this chat

"THE BIG DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HUMAN HAPPINESS AND SADNESS? 37 FREAKIN’ VIBRATIONS.”

TING L EA OW TURTLE AND TURE TOR

Michael Tilson Thomas

DCM: So, we’ve been reading one of your books, Charles Darwin: I’m glad to hear it! Which one? DCM: The one that took you 44 years to write. The Formation of Vegetable Mould Through the Action of Worms, with Observations on Their Habits. The title is, um, catchy. Darwin: Did you get to the part with my experiments on potted worms? I exploded firecrackers next to them, shouted, and played them the bassoon. DCM: And you did that for what reason? Darwin: So that I could prove that worms are deaf. Duh. DCM: Okay. Is that why your hands are dirty? Darwin: That’s from when I decided to count how many worms were in my garden. 53,767 per acre! I brought thousands in and stored them on my billiard table. Lovely creatures. Where would agriculture be without the fresh soil they allow our crops to flourish in, eh? DCM: Hence why you said, “It may be doubted whether there are any other animals which have played so important a part in the history of the world as have these lowly, organised creatures.” It’s... hell’s bells, what are you doing Charlie?!

18 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

Darwin: [Whipping the back of the tortoise he is sitting on] No, doesn’t work. [Sighs] When I arrived in the Galapagos Islands, near Ecuador, for my research voyage, I tried to ride these beasts there too. Alas, I kept falling off. DCM: Maybe they knew you would eat them, you weirdo. Is it true you snacked on almost every new animal you came across? Darwin: Indeed. And I was in a club called The Gluttons, at Cambridge. Once a week we’d aim to eat an exotic species. DCM: You’ve eaten armadillos? Darwin: Tasted and looked like a duck. DCM: Puma? Darwin: Tastes like veal. DCM: And an old brown owl? Darwin: Indescribably disgusting. I say! Is that a backgammon board? We shall play, and I shall trounce you like it’s 1882. DCM: The year you’ll die, having been bedridden for most of your life after the Galapagos. You played backgammon with your wife every night, didn’t you? Darwin: Quite so. By the end, and I quote myself “I had won 2,795 games to her piddling 2,490”. Loser has to eat the owl! DCM: You’re on. I’m going to whip you like a tortoise, old man.

Scientists at the University of Texas at Austin have created something Darwin would have loved — mutated worms that can’t get drunk after ingesting alcohol. Drunk worms, the researchers noted, crawl more slowly. But after modifying a molecular channel that binds alcohol in the brain, their worms still wriggled like superstars

Conductor (1944-) What is this famed classical music expert talking about? As he explained in a recent online talk, musical chords can represent varieties of emotions. So an E natural (a ‘happy-sounding’ note), resonates at 659 vibrations per second. An E flat (a ‘sad sounding’ one), resonates at 622. It’s a tiny difference, but the human ear is able to distinguish between music meant to make us weep like a baby, or to beam like a baby who's just been given icecream. Small changes, it seems, make a big difference. Like a normal email, versus AN EMAIL SENT WITH ALL CAPS. EERILY INTERESTING SNAKES

Use their jawbones to hear FISH

‘Hear’ thanks to bladders which sense water pressure changes

THE TWO SIDES OF

COFFEE

There’re many reasons people call coffee the world’s most widespread legal drug. It is mildly addictive, causes the release of dopamine, and if you asked most people to give it up, they’d laugh until they spat up their soy milk mocha latte. Yet there’s much to love and hate about this brown bean. You’ll have to make up your own mindzzz... Sorry, we haven’t had our morning espresso yet! As a line from Johann Bach’s ‘Coffee Cantata’ goes, “If I can’t drink my bowl of coffee three times daily, then in my torment I will shrivel up like a piece of roast goat”

If you hate cold coffee, add cream. One study found hot coffee stays warm 20 percent longer, as the fat retains heat

Some scientists believe sniffing coffee beans can result in instant alertness. Perfumers often smell them to reset their olfactory sense Italian friends don’t greet each other with “Hello!” Instead, they say, “Prendiamo un caffè?” (Shall we have a coffee?)

When 1,000 Americans were asked, “Which would you be least willing to give up for a week: smartphone, caffeine, alcohol or sex?” the majority, 29 percent, answered “caffeine”

Some say the etymology of the word “coffee” stems from the medieval Arabic word qahwa, from qahhwat al-bun meaning “wine of the bean”. The Turks blended that into kahveh, before the Dutch named it koffie. Next time you visit a café, you should maybe say, “I'll have your finest wine of the bean, please”

Two research discoveries in recent years: “Four cups of coffee a day halves risk of mouth cancer!” Then: “Four cups a day linked to early death.” Make up your minds, scientists

A 2011 report found that 13 major coffeeexporting countries, from Colombia to the Ivory Coast, utilise child labour or forced labour during cultivation

20 18 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

The world’s first webcam was created in 1991 — so that University of Cambridge students and academics could monitor the level of their communal coffee pot

In 1675 King Charles II of England announced a ban on coffee houses, as he felt citizens gathered there to plot against him and disturb “the peace and quiet of the realm”. Barely two weeks later, the order was revoked due to widespread protest Coffee lovers, your water footprint is huge. Cultivating coffee as a crop needs industrial amounts of water. A 125-millilitre espresso requires 140 litres of water (a 1:1,100 ratio)

Major coffee chains (we won’t name names, but here’s a hint: $) insist on naming cup sizes “tall, grande, venti” instead of “small, medium, large” 17 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE

TECHNOLOGY BIZARRE BRANDING

ONBOARD MAYHEM You’d be amazed at the insane objects people try to sneak onto planes. To make passengers aware of what is not allowed, the Transport Safety Administration (TSA) of the USA has started an Instagram account revealing the strangest objects. Like two 16-centimetre throwing knives that were stored in a hollowed-out book. Or mortar rounds, live eels, and more guns than even Rambo would know what to do with. Apart from being useful (did you know you can carry anti-bear spray in your check-in bag, provided it doesn’t exceed 118ml?), the blog also reveals that yes, even airport security has a sense of humour. Such as when a 22-centimetre knife was found at one airport, forgotten in a passenger’s enchilada. “While this was a great catch, the passenger’s intent was delicious, not malicious, and she was cleared for travel,” notes the blog. “It’s always important to double check your bags and enchiladas.”

WEIRD STUFF YOU CAN FLY WITH: Live Lobsters

X-Ray Rock

Cremated Remains (As a measure of respect, TSA agents aren’t allowed to even open them)

Parachutes Service Monkeys (“The inspection process may require the handler to take off the monkey’s diaper (nappy)”)

WEIRD STUFF YOU CAN’T: Dead Electronics The TSA recently announced passengers travelling from certain overseas airports to the USA will have to demonstrate that their laptop or phone can be powered up, or it will not be permitted aboard. It’s feared some devices could be used to harbour explosives

This is an X-ray of a skull. But it’s also a playable record. Under Soviet rule, these discarded medical images were known as ‘music on the ribs’ or ‘rock on bones’. They were a sneaky, black market way of hiding music the authorities had banned, and were pretty ad hoc affairs. But as vinyl was a scarce material, they were also practical. First, the X-ray was cut into a circle, then a circle burned into the middle, usually with a cigarette. The grooves of records were then replicated using a converted phonograph. The quality was terrible, but sometimes you just gotta headbang, nyet? MUSIC ACTS BANNED BY THE SOVIETS

And the Official Reason A HUSH HUSH AFFAIR Harley Davidson has a new prototype electric bike out, and it looks cooler than a polar bear in RayBans. But while the LiveWire is easy on the eyes, it lacks a certain something — that trademark roar of the engine. In normal traffic, it’s as hushed as a bacteria covering up a belch. And a Harley without an audio oomph is like the MGM lion without its roar. Some are even pondering if the LiveWire could pose a safety issue, as drivers won’t be able to hear you whispering up the highway at your top speed of 150 kph.

KISS

“Neo-fascism, punk, violence”

PINK FLOYD

“Misrepresentation of Soviet foreign policy” VILLAGE PEOPLE

“Violence” [Seriously?]

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PHOTOS: QCUMBER GREEN SCREEN STUDIOS GREEN ROOM); JOZSEF HAJDU (XRAY RECORD)

BEST AND WORST NOISES FROM OTHER BRANDS (From good to bad) THX Deep Note, F1 engine, Flick of a Zippo lighter, iPod click wheel, The pop of a Pringles can, Rice Krispy’s crackling in a bowl (for about three seconds), Windows 95 Startup sound, Yahoo’s yodel

HISTORY BACK TO THE FUTURE

LIFE TIPS FROM “Paint the town red!” HISTORICAL FIGURES Discovery Channel Magazine has bent the rules of space-time, fiction and mortality to solve the world’s problems. Not the big stuff, but the li’l things that make a difference. Here, a politician, a comedian and a renowned beauty turned Agony Aunt do the honours. And their answers draw on their life experiences.

HOW TO CRAFT A JOKE, BY CHARLIE CHAPLIN

Dear Mr Chaplin. Longtime fan, first-time writer. What’s the secret to delivering a good laugh? Signed, Unfunny in Uzbekistan

Dear U-in-U, In the 1930s, a writer asked me, “How do I make a fat lady slip on a banana peel and still get a laugh? Do I first show the peel, then the fat lady approaching, then she slips? Or fat lady first, then banana, then the fall?” My reply: “Neither. You show the fat lady. Then the peel; then the fat lady and the peel together. Then she steps over the peel… and disappears down a manhole.” Yours in humour, Charlie Chaplin.

HOW TO NEGOTIATE, BY WINSTON CHURCHILL

Dear Sir. Any tips to win tough business negotiations. Signed, Flustered

Dear Flustered, Smoking is terrible. But I once put my cigars to good use by skewering them with a hatpin during negotiations. The pin would hold up the long ash and, it was said, mesmerise my opponents, who were wondering when it would fall. Distracted from the argument, I could walk all over them. Sincerely, Winston Churchill.

Mad Marquis: how crazy are we talking? Described in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography as a ‘reprobate and landowner’. He painted the heels of a parson’s horse, before hunting him down with bloodhounds. He also once put a donkey in a stranger’s hotel bed.

Nothing To Sneeze At To us, this is a pile of pretty but unexciting pepper. But until a few hundred years ago, pepper was so valuable that it was sold by the individual grain. Not surprising, considering a grain was as valuable as a precious metal. Buying a handful of pepper in the 1400s represented a fairly major investment, open mainly to wealthy aristocrats. In the Middle Ages, dockworkers near the trade ships of London even had their pockets sewn shut — so they wouldn’t steal them.

PEPPER TIMELINE HOW TO EAT RIGHT, BY SOPHIA LAUREN

Dear Sophia. You’re so curvy! What do you eat? Signed, The Eatalian Job

Dear Eatalian, “Everything you see I owe to spaghetti.” Kisses, Sophia Lauren

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1213 BC

1468

2014

Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II is buried. Peppercorns are used as a part of the Pharaoh's embalming process

Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy celebrates his wedding, which boasts 170 kilograms of pepper served to guests

Pepper is still the most widely traded spice in the world, accounting for about 20 percent of all spice imports

ILLUSTRATIONS: BEN MOUNSEY (CHARLIE CHAPLIN, WINSTON CHURCHILL, SOFIA LAUREN)

“How-to...” from the old and famous

When someone’s nickname is ‘the Mad Marquis’, you know they’ll be good for a story or two. There are many theories as to the originator of this phrase for revelry, but for our money, the Marquis is a strong contender. In July 1837, English newspapers published accounts that Henry Beresford, the Third Marquess of Waterford (1811-1859) and his cronies had painted parts of the small town of Melton Mowbray scarlet. This included several local citizens. One illustrated account notes how “three men in scarlet have a single watchman down and are daubing his face with paint”. While we can’t be sure the Mad Marquis is the true genesis of the phrase, one would imagine a mad aristocrat who wanted to paint an entire town red would have bellowed, “Let’s paint the town red!”

FEATURES

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PAGE 28 TUNE INTO HOW ANIMALS COMMUNICATE

PAGE 72 TAKE A PEEK INTO THE MIND OF A SERIAL KILLER

PAGE 42 CAN RADIATION BE GOOD FOR YOU?

PAGE 86 SURVIVAL TACTICS ON A DESERT ISLAND

PAGE 58 REBELLION IN THE PUNK ROCK STYLE

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PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES (CHEETAH)

EVER WONDERED HOW ANIMALS COMMUNICATE AND WHAT THEY ACTUALLY TALK ABOUT? NOSEY SCIENTISTS EAVESDROP ON CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN WILD CREATURES, TO DISCOVER THAT THEIR CHATTER RELATES TO RECREATION, DANGER, LOVE, FOOD AND 'WHERE ARE THE KIDS'. WANT TO HEAR THE JUNGLE GOSSIP? RACHEL SULLIVAN LISTENS IN

ANIMAL INSTINCTS

TALK ON THE WILD SIDE

BARN OWL BARN OWLS HAVE AN AMAZING ABILITY TO LOCATE PREY BY SOUND, WITH BETTER ACCURACY THAN ANY OTHER ANIMAL THAT HAS BEEN TESTED. AND HIDING FROM A BARN OWL WON’T HELP. THEY CAN HEAR PREY THAT IS HIDDEN UNDER VEGETATION OR SNOW. TO FIND A BARN OWL, LISTEN FOR AN EERIE, RASPY CALL, WHICH IS UNLIKE THE HOOTS OF OTHER BREEDS OF OWL

VISUAL AUDITORY TACTILE CHEMICAL

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

GHOSTLY PALE AND STRICTLY NOCTURNAL, BARN OWLS ARE SILENT PREDATORS OF THE NIGHT WORLD WITH EXCELLENT LOW-LIGHT VISION. FOR INSTANCE, THEY CAN CATCH MICE IN UTTER DARKNESS, BASED ONLY ON ACOUSTIC CUES PRODUCED BY THE PREY

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ANIMAL INSTINCTS

Each afternoon in the peaceful Port Douglas twilight, in far north Queensland in Australia, thousands of small colourful parrots race through the lengthening shadows to get to their favourite perch and exchange the day’s gossip with a thousand more close friends. The noise is deafening. Yet, given that their day is spent sipping nectar from flowers, one has to wonder just what it is that they’re talking about so passionately.

ur understanding of animal communication has come a long way from the days when people viewed animals as little more than mute automatons. And while our understanding of animal talk began with birds, today technology is allowing scientists to make sense of everything from whale songs and sniffing rats, to rumbling shrimp and dancing bees — not to mention vibrating tree frogs, bellowing koalas and colour-changing lizards. As it turns out, they all have a lot to say, at least according to animal communication expert, Dr Jennifer Clarke. “Animals have a wide variety of communication signals that they use in different contexts including play, foraging, courtship, territory defence, and making maternal contact calls or alarm calls when there is a predator nearby,” she says. Clarke is the current Wallace Fellow in the Department of Biological Sciences at Sydney’s Macquarie University, in Australia, and an Affiliate Professor of Zoology at the University of Northern Colorado. She says decoding animal communication is something most of us already do, in some manner. “Nearly everyone recognises when a

dog signals ‘I want to play!’ You’ve seen it: forelegs down on the ground, rump up in the air and tail wagging. It’s called the ‘play bow’ and it is as clear as words indicating what the dog is ‘saying’,” she notes. It’s easy to understand animals we share our lives with. As DCM writes this, a house cat is making its ‘where are you?’ call from downstairs. It is a very different call from ‘where’s my dinner?’ or ‘can you open the door, please?” Yet what’s interesting is that cats only meow to us humans — not to other cats, except when they are kittens. They might yowl at each other before launching into battle, but otherwise, they contain their feline communication repertoire to sniffing, hissing, posturing and (mercifully infrequent) pungent scent marking. Even chickens have been shown to have a remarkable vocabulary. They use particular calls for different grades of food and change the tone of their conversation depending on who is listening. They also talk to people. Someone who has kept chickens, and greeted their backyard flock with a ‘hello’ each morning, will say it is not uncommon to find them saying ‘hello’ right back. Again and again and again.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE Clarke’s research focuses on different types of animal communication and their application in the conservation of highly social species such as elk, bison, wolves, dingoes, bats and white-tailed ptarmigan, an alpine bird from North America. Most of our 31 OCTOBER 2014

understanding of animal communication systems originates from research on birds, she says. “Birds lend themselves to study more than other vertebrates like mammals or fish as most birds are active in daylight hours and are terrestrial — as are researchers,” she explains. “Birds also use a wide variety of visual signals that are effective only in bright light and use acoustic signals that are in the hearing range of humans.” By contrast, most mammals live a life that is a bit foreign to us, she adds.

CHICKENS HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO HAVE REMARKABLE VOCABULARY AND THEY USE PARTICULAR CALLS FOR DIFFERENT GRADES OF FOOD AND CHANGE THEIR TONE DEPENDING ON WHO IS DOING THE LISTENING “They are nocturnal or crepuscular, active at dawn and dusk. And they rely heavily on scent, because visual signals are a poor choice in the dark.” Scents can be deposited and left as a type of ‘wee-mail’, which lingers for an extended period of time. Individuals have signature scents, each of which can inform a receiver that a familiar or foreign individual is nearby. “The study of scent signals is a rising field and has much to reveal, but is still somewhat of a ‘foreign language’ to 32 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

humans,” Clarke says. To the untrained eye, or nose, dogs are superior scent-based communicators. But in the creature scent olympics, it is definitely insects that set the gold standard. Ants communicate both by touch and smell. When two ants encounter each other, they sniff with their antennae in a kind of olfactory handshake, to find out whether they belong to the same nest, and whether they have been working inside or outside the nest, before following a scent trail laid down by foragers to a distant food source. However hard these trails may be for us to distinguish, plenty of other animals have no such trouble. Many animals are thought to deter eavesdroppers by ‘whispering’ their signals about the location or quality of resources, using signals recognised only by nestmates to make them less conspicuous to outsiders. One species of stingless bee in Brazil does the exact opposite, using scent marking to not only identify a food source, but also to aggressively warn wouldbe competitors that the food source will be fiercely defended. The more a site is visited by members of a colony, the more of the distinctive pheromone is left behind. This might tell a rival where to find food, but will also tell them that they’ll have a real fight on their hands if they try to steal it.

LONG DISTANCE CALLS Communication tools are shaped as much by inherent ability as they are by the animal’s environment and sound is able to travel far greater distances than other localised displays. “Many animals live in a sensory world that differs from ours,

as their range of hearing extends well into ultrasound and infrasound,” says Clarke, whose research group is creating a library of the calls of native Australian mammals including flying foxes, dingoes and Tasmanian devils. Dolphins can make their point by slapping their tails on the water, while African elephants make deep, rumbling, long-distance calls that can be heard across a 285 square kilometre area. Teddy bear-sized koalas produce exceptionally low-pitched mating calls that wouldn’t be out of place in an animal the size of an elephant. The dull roar emitted by lovelorn males conveys information about their identity and size to prospective mates — plus any potential love rivals across the Australian bush. At the other end of the sonic spectrum, one Southeast Asian frog species uses ultrasonic frequencies which scientists believe are used to overcome the sounds of rushing water in the areas they live in. It is hard to imagine that sounds made by insects could bear the smallest resemblance to those made by whales, yet one US-based team that compared data from 500 species found that whether animals are using vocal cords or rubbing their legs, they actually have a lot in common. “Very few people have compared cricket chirps to codfish sounds to the sounds made by whales and monkeys to see if there were commonalities in the key features of acoustic signals, including the frequency, power and duration of signals,” explained Dr James Gillooly, from the University of Florida, in 2010 when the research was first published. “Our results indicate that, for all species, basic features of acoustic communication

ANIMAL INSTINCTS

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

HORSES HORSES USE A WIDE RANGE OF BODY PARTS. NOSTRILS CAN BE WRINKLED IN DISGUST, PRICKED EARS CAN INDICATE ALERTNESS, FLATTENED EARS AND A SWISHING TAIL MORE THAN LIKELY MEAN THAT HE IS ANGRY, A HALF-CLOSED EYE CAN MEAN HAPPINESS — BUT A CLOSED EYE CAN MEAN EXHAUSTION OR PAIN. A LONG NOSE CAN INDICATE A WISH FOR GROOMING. BECAUSE OF ACUTE VISION, HORSES CAN PICK UP SLIGHT CHANGES IN THESE SIGNALS

SIGHING, SNICKERING, NEIGHING, WHINNYING, SQUEALING, SNORTING AND GROANING. HORSES HAVE A LOT TO SAY, BOTH TO HUMANS, AND OTHER ANIMALS. A LONG SIGH FOLLOWED BY A SHUDDER, CAN DENOTE RELAXATION. OR IT MIGHT BE A SIGN THAT SHE’S BORED AND ASKING FOR ENTERTAINMENT. WATCH TWO HORSES AS THEY GREET EACH OTHER WITH A SNICKER. THIS IS A WELCOME SOUND AND A GENTLE WAY OF ASKING FOR ATTENTION

TACTILE SENSE IS USED AS AN IMPORTANT COMMUNICATION VEHICLE FOR HORSES. WHEN BEING GROOMED BY A HUMAN, A NIBBLE ON THE SHOULDER OR HAND CAN INDICATE HAPPINESS. NOSE TO NOSE SNIFFING BETWEEN TWO HORSES CAN MEAN A GREETING, AS CAN NOSE TO ELBOW AND NOSE TO FLANK. A HORSE WOULD MUCH RATHER BE STROKED IN A CIRCULAR MOTION THAN BE PATTED

HORSES HAVE AN EXCELLENT SENSE OF SMELL AND SCENT RECOGNITION PLAYS A LARGE PART IN THEIR COMMUNICATION, WITH ANIMALS AND HORSES. IT’S IMPORTANT IN MEETING AND GREETING OTHER HORSES THAT HORSES SMELL NOSES, BREATH, FLANKS AND GENITALS. SMELL IS USED IN FOAL RECOGNITION BY THE MARE AS WELL AS BY THE FOAL. FOR EXAMPLE, IT USES ITS SENSE OF SMELL TO LOCATE THE UDDER FOR FEEDING

33 OCTOBER 2014

DOGS DOGS HAVE A BINOCULAR FIELD OF VISION OF APPROXIMATELY 40 TO 60 DEGREES, WHICH VARIES FROM BREED TO BREED. THEY CAN SEE IN THE DARK DUE TO MORE RODS IN THE RETINA, AND ARE SENSITIVE TO SEEING MOVEMENT AT DISTANCE — ALTHOUGH DETAIL ISN’T STRONG DOGS CAN HEAR A MUCH HIGHER FREQUENCY SOUND THAN HUMANS. CANINE HEARING COVERS FROM 15HZ UP TO 65,000HZ. HUMANS ONLY GO UP TO 20,000. THEIR HEARING IS BEST AT 4000HZ, WHEREAS HUMANS ARE AT 1000 TO 2000HZ. MOVING THEIR EARS ALSO ALLOWS DOGS TO BETTER LOCALISE SOUND SO THEY CAN JUDGE DISTANCE THE SKIN OF THE DOG HAS COMPLEX RECEPTORS THAT CAN SENSE PAIN, BODY MOVEMENT AND POSITION, TEMPERATURE, TOUCH AND PRESSURE AND CHEMICAL STIMULATION. DOGS HAVE TOUCH RECEPTORS AT THE BASE OF EVERY HAIR, WITH THEIR WHISKERS BEING ESPECIALLY SENSITIVE CANINES HAVE THE INCREDIBLE ABILITY TO SMELL AT LEAST 100,000 TIMES BETTER THAN HUMANS. THE AREA OF A DOG’S BRAIN USED TO ANALYSE SMELLS IS 40 TIMES LARGER THAN A HUMAN’S. A DOG CAN HAVE UP TO 250 MIO (MILLION) SCENT RECEPTOR CELLS, WHILE HUMANS HAVE 5 MIO

ANIMAL INSTINCTS

are primarily controlled by individual metabolism, which in turn varies predictably with body size and temperature. So when the calls are adjusted for an animal’s size and temperature, they even sound alike.” What they are actually talking about though, might be another matter.

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES; THE JOHN LILLY ESTATE (MARGARET HOWE AND DOLPHIN)

HUMAN LANGUAGE COMBINES A MUSICAL EXPRESSIVE LAYER WITH A LEXICAL LAYER. RESEARCHERS BELIEVE THAT THIS TWO-LAYER LANGUAGE SYSTEM DERIVES FROM BIRD SONG

Human language uniquely combines a musical expressive layer, which relates to sentence structure, with a lexical layer, relating to the words used to build sentences. Some researchers now believe that this twolayer language system derives melodically from bird song (thanks to a common ancestor between birds and humans), while the pragmatic content in our speech is something that we share with primates. Clarke says that though this is an interesting idea there is much to learn before we can say with certainty that non-human animals do or do not have a system similar to human language. “The list of animals whose vocal repertoire is known is very short,” she explains. “However, animals do have what is termed ‘functionally referential signals’.” These signals refer

to the subjects or events in the environment, such as the presence of a specific predator, she explains. It seems that different predators may receive different types of warnings. “I studied an alpine bird that produced acoustically different calls when aerial (falcons) or terrestrial (coyotes) predators were detected. When the hens uttered these different calls, their chicks would take distinctly different escape tactics depending on the call type. They would freeze under rocks to escape visual detection of an aerial predator — but they would adeptly flee over the alpine boulders to escape an olfactory pursuing coyote,” she states. Alarm calls have been studied in many species, and these vocalisations alert nearby relatives to potential danger, and may also provide information about how threatened the caller feels itself to be, or the appropriate escape tactics that should be used to evade the threat. Necessity is often said to be the mother of invention, and as seen on Animal Planet’s Wild Kingdom, the language of prairie dogs, a highly social and gastronomically desirable rodent that lives in vast colonies in North America, may only be second to humans in its complexity. Prairie dogs, which are the size of a rabbit, make distinctive calls that can distinguish between a wide variety of animals, including coyotes, domestic dogs and humans. They can also develop a description for a human newly introduced to their colony in less than two hours. In a single chirp lasting a tenth of a second, they are able to describe abstract shapes such as circles and triangles, as well as the colour

TOOLS FOR ANIMAL COMMUNICATION

CHALKBOARD The Nazis believed dogs were so intelligent that they could be trained to read, write and talk — and perhaps eventually guard concentration camps, or enter combat. And so Hitler set up a Tiersprachschule , or Animal Talking School featuring “educated dogs” around Germany. One was an Airedale terrier named Rolf, who could apparently spell by tapping his paw on a chalkboard. The number of taps represented letters.

FLOODED HOUSES In 1965, a young researcher named Margaret Howe lived in a semi-flooded house. Her roommate was Peter, a dolphin. The experiment was created by a neuroscientist named Dr Lilly at the Communication Research Institute in the Virgin Islands. He believed that through constant human contact, a dolphin could learn to speak. But as time passed it became clear Peter wanted a mate, not a schoolmate, and began violently wooing Howe. Bizarrely, Dr Lilly later tried to get other dolphins to talk by feeding them LSD. TINY SPEAKERS The larvae of blue butterflies (Maculinea rebeli) have a party trick. They can recreate a ticking noise that red ants make, so accurately that the insects take them in, feed them and worship them as their ‘ant-queen’. Entomologists at the University of Oxford discovered this ability by hooking mini-microphones to an MP3 recorder to capture the larvae sounds, and then played them back on miniaturised speakers to the ants, who were greatly attracted to the tunes. 35 OCTOBER 2014

MANGSHAN PIT VIPER SNAKE THE PIT VIPER HAS WELL-DEVELOPED BINOCULAR VISION AND PUPILS WITH LONG VERTICAL SLITS THAT INCREASE ITS VISUAL PERCEPTION. IT ALSO RELIES ON 'HEAT IMAGING' TO SENSE ITS ENVIRONMENT AND TO SENSE PREY, AIDED BY A PAIR OF HEAT-SENSITIVE PITS BETWEEN ITS EYES AND NOSTRILS LIKE ALL SNAKES, A PIT VIPER SENSES NEARBY VIBRATIONS RATHER THAN SOUND, OWING TO ITS PRIMITIVE EAR STRUCTURE

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

NAMED AFTER THE MANGSHAN MOUNTAINS IN HUNAN, CHINA, WHERE IT IS FOUND, THE MANGSHAN PIT VIPER IS THE ONLY KNOWN NONCOBRA TO REPORTEDLY SPIT VENOM

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ANIMAL INSTINCTS

PORCUPINE THERE ARE ABOUT TWO DOZEN PORCUPINE SPECIES, AND ALL BOAST A COAT OF NEEDLE-LIKE QUILLS TO WARD OFF PREDATORS. THE QUILLS OF AN AFRICAN CRESTED PORCUPINE, ARE NEARLY 30 CENTIMETRES LONG. WHEN A PORCUPINE’S QUILLS LIE FLAT, THE ANIMAL IS SAYING THAT IT DOES NOT FEEL THREATENED. IF DISTURBED OR IN DANGER BY A PREDATOR, THE PORCUPINE INSTANTLY RAISES ITS QUILLS TO ATTENTION

PORCUPINES HAVE ACUTE HEARING, AND MAKE SHRILL SCREECHES, WHINES, AND LOW GRUNTS TO COMMUNICATE. THE VOCAL REPERTOIRE IS EXTENSIVE, AND INCLUDES TOOTHCHATTERING, LOW-PITCHED GRUNTS, SCREECHES, SNARLS, AND HIGH-PITCHED CAT LIKE SHRIEKS

PORCUPINES USE TACTILE COMMUNICATION, THROUGH LIGHT TOUCH OR MORE PHYSICALLY AGGRESSIVE CONTACT, FOR MATING, COMPETITION OR DEFENSE. WHEN A MALE AND FEMALE PORCUPINE MEET, THEY MAY RUB NOSES OR FRONT PAWS AS PART OF A COURTSHIP RITUAL. MALE PORCUPINES MAY BITE OTHER MALES, OR CAUSE HARM WITH THEIR QUILLS, WHILE COMPETING FOR A MATE

PORCUPINES HAVE A KEEN SENSE OF SMELL AND SCENT MARKING IS PREVALENT. DURING COURTSHIP BOUTS, A MALE SPRAYS A RECEPTIVE FEMALE WITH BURSTS OF URINE BEFORE MATING WITH HER

37 OCTOBER 2014

CHIMPANZEE

FLYING FOX MUMS AND PUPS HAVE CONTACT CALLS THAT THEY USE TO RECOGNISE AND FIND ONE ANOTHER: BOTH CALL BACK AND FORTH UNTIL THEY FIND EACH OTHER Other animals have food calls that indicate they have found something delicious. “White-tailed ptarmigan hens utter a unique food call

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that summons their chicks to the food that is highest in protein,” explains Clarke. Chickens make different calls depending on which tasty morsel they find, and are much more excited by the prospect of a juicy snail, or pile of fresh greens, than by their staple diet of grain and household scraps. Mothers and their young also need to find one another after they have been separated, she explains. “Flying fox mums and pups have ‘contact calls’ that they use to recognise and find one another after the mum has been off foraging and is now circling the camp and seeking her pup — both call back and forth to one another until they find each other.” Bison use a similar system after they have been separated, such as after a stampede when they’re fleeing from a threat. “Cows and calves call back and forth until they find one another, but scent is the litmus test for both flying foxes and bison,” says Clarke. “They sniff each other to make certain of their identity.”

SNIFF TEST Intriguingly, sniffing has recently been recognised as a new form of animal communication. The vigorous sniffing that occurs when two animals meet, has been long surmised as animals, whose olfactory lives are much richer than our own, simply smelling each other. But Dr Daniel Wesson, a neuroscientist from Case Western Reserve University, found that rats sniff each other to identify who’s in charge, and to depress any social climbing pretensions without any potentially costly blows being exchanged. He found that when two rats approach each other, the dominant rat sniffs more

frequently than the more submissive animal. Wesson suggests that the dominant rat’s superior sniffing is actually a conflict avoidance signal, similar to the way that a large ape beats its chest. In response, the subordinate animal might cower and look away. Or in the case of the rats, decrease its sniffing. “This sniffing behaviour might reflect a common mechanism of communication behavior across many types of animals and in a variety of social contexts,” Wesson suggests. “It is highly likely that our pets use similar communication strategies in front of our eyes each day, but because we do not use this ourselves, it isn’t recognisable as ‘communication’.” While this was the first new form of communication identified in rats since the 1970s, the research is significant for humans as well, to better help researchers understand how neurological problems impact the brain’s ability to conduct normal social behaviours. Underwater, it is only relatively recently that researchers have been able to make sense of animal sounds. They have discovered, for example, that catchy choruses from humpback whale songs are transmitted between geographically widespread populations. More difficult to pin down has been how animals in the deepest parts of the ocean communicate. In 2011, a team of researchers from the University of Miami used a range of instruments, including audio-visual equipment and a hydrophone, to record sounds made by mantis shrimp, an aggressive, burrow-dwelling 25-centimetre long crustacean from the ocean floor.

RESEARCHERS DISCOVERED THAT WILD CHIMPANZEES COMMUNICATE 19 SPECIFIC MESSAGES TO ONE ANOTHER WITH 66 GESTURES. FOR EXAMPLE, TO INTIMIDATE OTHERS OR TO SHOW DOMINANCE, THEIR HAIR STANDS ON END SO THEY LOOK BIGGER, THEY SCREAM, STAMP THEIR FEET, GO ON A RAMPAGE, DRAGGING BRANCHES OR HURLING ROCKS AN INDIVIDUAL CHIMPANZEE HAS HIS OR HER OWN DISTINCT PANT-HOOT. THIS HELPS OTHER CHIMPANZEES IDENTIFY WHO IS MAKING THE CALL, EVEN IF THEY CAN’T SEE WHO IS CALLING. THE DIVERSE CALLS CAN OCCUR WITHIN A GROUP OF CHIMPANZEES OR BETWEEN GROUPS THAT ARE SEPARATED, SOMETIMES BY A GREAT DISTANCE THEY COMMUNICATE MUCH LIKE HUMANS DO — BY KISSING, EMBRACING, PATTING ON THE BACK, TOUCHING HANDS, TICKLING AND MORE. LIKE OTHER GREAT APES, THEY GROOM EACH OTHER TO IMPROVE RELATIONS IN THE COMMUNITY AND TO CALM NERVOUS OR TENSE INDIVIDUALS

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

of clothes that humans are wearing; their size and shape — and even whether a human once appeared with a gun. African vervet monkeys have three different alarm calls, used to warn others in their group about exactly what type of predator to look out for. The ‘snake’ call, which sounds remarkably like the word snake, causes the group to stand up and study the ground. The ‘eagle’ alarm call makes them dive for cover in thick bush where an aerial predator can’t reach them; while the ‘leopard’ call sends them scrambling to the flimsiest treetops.

ANIMAL INSTINCTS

OPPOSITE MANTIS SHRIMP, A BURROWDWELLING CRUSTACEAN FROM THE OCEAN FLOOR, MAKE NOISES INDIVIDUALLY AND IN GROUPS

“Rarely are there studies of benthic acoustics, or sounds from the ocean’s floor,” explains researcher Erica Staaterman. “There has always been suspicion that burrowdwelling creatures like the mantis shrimp make some sort of noise, and our research will help us better understand life and communication on the ocean floor.” The study found that mantis shrimp make noise, with each individual seeming to have its own ‘voice.’ The males make rhythmic ‘rumbles’ in groups of three that may help attract females to their burrows — or defend their territories against neighbouring males. “The ‘rumbles’ were so synchronised that it sounded like a chorus, similar to that of groups of birds or frogs,” Staaterman added.

COLOURFUL CHARACTERS Perhaps the most spectacular forms of communication are visual. Visual signals come in many forms, from tail waving and posturing to colours, patterns and crests, as well as other features that come and go in a flash. The bright colours of birds can indicate their health status and general attractiveness to prospective partners. In the tropical forests of New Guinea, birds of paradise gather to dance on stages, called leks, that they create by clearing branches of their leaves — to show off their spectacular plumage to the plainclothed females. The spectacular colours of coral reef fish represent a ‘language’ that’s been around for at least 50 million years. While colours can also be used for camouflage, by brightening or darkening their colours, reef fish are able to display aggression or fear, identify mates, advertise status — and even hide from danger. 39 OCTOBER 2014

ANIMAL INSTINCTS

A GREEN IGUANA STANDING ON A BRANCH OF A TREE IN A SOUTH FLORIDA GOLF COURSE.

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colour are primarily visual communicators. “We know this colour change ability has to be mediated through the part of the brain that processes visual information,” she notes. So how does a lizard sitting on a brown background know to change colours? “In the same way that when we come to a flight of stairs, our brain sends a signal to lift our leg, when a lizard sees the background colour has changed, it responds through a combination of neural and hormonal signals to produce the colour change.” In fact, chameleons also change colour to regulate their temperatures. A cold lizard takes on a darker hue to absorb more heat from the sun, while a hot lizard becomes lighter to reflect heat. Or it may be done to attract the attention of other chameleons: males become brightly coloured when they want to show their dominance,

and dark when engaged in battle with other males. “If a lizard is hot, it would want to be light to reflect heat but it might also need to be dark to be camouflaged on a dark background. Colour change is one way they can resolve this conflict,” says Dr Stuart-Fox, adding that the great diversity of plumage colours in birds are driven by similar mechanisms: they act as camouflage, communicate and influence the bird’s temperature. “Although they can’t change colours, hidden feathers may be flashed in a courtship display, or feathered throat pouches inflated or deflated to display a male’s fitness,” she adds. If you want to get someone’s attention, making the ground shake is particularly hard to miss. Yet although insects have been known to use vibration to make their point, it was only relatively recently that South American red-eyed treefrogs

THE CORAL REEF FISH ARE ABLE TO DISPLAY AGGRESSION, FEAR, IDENTIFY MATES, ADVERTISE STATUS AND EVEN HIDE FROM DANGER THROUGH COLOUR CHANGE What we do know, increasingly, is a little more on what it is they’re talking about. Indeed, the topics may not surprise you. “When it comes to what they’re on about, whether they’re parrots or possums, it is becoming obvious that they are chatting about recreation, food, dating, property, danger — and where the kids are,” says Clarke. Does that sound familiar?

PHOTO: DREAMSTIME.COM

On land, chameleons share this same spectacular ability, although it turns out they’re not the only ones. “Chameleons are a big family with more than 150 species, but two other closely related families are also capable of colour change,” explains the University of Melbourne’s Dr Devi Stuart-Fox, whose research focuses on the significance of animal colour patterns, particularly lizards. “Dragon lizards are found throughout Australia, Asia and Africa and many of them change colour really quickly, while iguanids, found throughout the Americas, are called the American chameleon because of their colour-changing abilities. They also engage in behaviours such as armwaving, head nodding and push-ups, as well as other more elaborate displays such as throat fanning,” she says. According to Dr StuartFox, families that change

were recognised to be using tremulation, the vibration of leaves and tree branches, to communicate aggressively with one another. “In the case of red-eyed treefrogs, tremulation displays in which the frogs shake their entire bodies, convey information about the status and aggressive intent of the signaler,” explains Dr Michael Caldwell, the biologist at Boston University who made the discovery. The findings in treefrogs are likely applicable to other arboreal vertebrates, he says. Macquarie University’s Jennifer Clarke adds, “I cannot put my finger on any one species’ communication abilities that is most surprising as each is so fascinating,” she says.

RADIATION NOW: HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

Like it or not, we are all hotwired to a global mainframe — whether at work or at play. But at what cost? Eric Talmadge views radiation and its history as a by-product of the nuclear age, and shares experiences of a culture forced to live with its scares

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NUCLEAR MATTERS

IN A TEST ROOM AT THE INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AUTHORITY OF TURKEY

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earthquake and a once-in-amillennium tsunami touched off the second worst disaster at a nuclear power facility in the history of mankind, Fukushima looks much like it did before it became the 21st century’s poster-child of nuclear disaster. Along its roadsides, wild grass grows long and free, flowers bloom in all colours, birds chirp, insects click and sing. Humans, too, are gradually making their way back. With the nuclear plant relatively stable, sealed off and no longer generating energy, the extensive no-go zones that forced more than 100,000 residents to abandon their homes and farms are being re-examined. Reports have come out suggesting the threat from radiation to the majority of people in all but the most heavily impacted areas — the immediate vicinity of the facility and corridors that were especially vulnerable to contamination due to geography and wind patterns — is probably not as high as many had feared in the early days of the crisis. But three years on, engineers are struggling to contain and somehow safely dispose of huge amounts of water required to keep the nuclear reactors cool and under control. It’s a “water, water, everywhere’’ problem that is both a major threat to the environment and a key issue that must be resolved before the process of decommissioning the facility can move forward. Even by the most optimistic timelines, that will be a project passed on from the generation that built and benefited from Fukushima

ABOVE WORKERS CONDUCT RADIATION SAFETY SCREENING TESTS AT THE TOKYO ELECTRIC POWER COMPANY'S NUCLEAR POWER PLANT IN FUKUSHIMA, JAPAN LEFT THE ICONIC MONSTER, GODZILLA, WAS CREATED BY FILM PRODUCER TOMOYUKI TANAKA IN THE 1950S, AFTER THE HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI ATOM BOMBINGS

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES (MAIN); EVERETT/TPG/CLICK PHOTOS (GODZILLA)

n the early 1950s, film producer Tomoyuki Tanaka, struggling with Japan’s postHiroshima, postNagasaki identity, came up with the perfect icon. He was looking at a nation rising from defeat in an all-out war, that for the first time had ended with the mass slaughter of hundreds of thousands, courtesy mankind’s latest and most powerful technological invention — the atomic weapon. Tanaka’s brainchild, of course, was Godzilla, a horrendous monster that rose out of the ocean. A fierce and destructive mutant alter ego of mankind, spawned by radioactivity that was both awesome and equally terrifying, threatening to destroy him, his cities, his lives and his world. His was a grim view of the new nuclear age. But while Tanaka’s creation has been seen as silly by many of the audiences around the world it has entertained for decades, it was prescient. Like Godzilla, the forward march of the nuclear age has since been virtually unstoppable. And, ironically, the country that gave the world the nuclear age’s most iconic monster is again living through its own nuclear nightmare. Fukushima, post-2011, doesn’t have the postapocalyptic chill of a science fiction movie. There are no mutated giants here. In fact, it’s rather beautiful. More than three years after it was ravished by a magnitude-nine

NUCLEAR MATTERS

DANGER!

ALMOST ALL OF US WILL RECOGNISE THE INTERNATIONAL SYMBOL FOR RADIATION — IT’S BEEN IN MORE ACTION MOVIES AND VIDEO GAMES THAN YOU CAN COUNT. IT WAS FIRST DOODLED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RADIATION LABORATORY IN 1946. AS ONE OF THE HEADS OF THE LAB NOTED LATER, “A NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN THE GROUP TOOK AN INTEREST IN SUGGESTING DIFFERENT MOTIFS, AND THE ONE AROUSING THE MOST INTEREST WAS A DESIGN WHICH WAS SUPPOSED TO REPRESENT ACTIVITY RADIATING FROM AN ATOM.”

to their children and to the children of their children. What, in the meantime, have we learned?

KNOW THY FRENEMY In the early days of radiation study, radioactive materials seemed to be almost magical. While 19th century scientists like Marie and Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel (who shared the 1903 Nobel Prize for their discovery of radiation in 1896) experimented with such substances as radium, trying to understand its exotic

physical qualities, those same qualities also quickly caught the imagination of the public. Soon, the world had an astounding array of radioactive toys to play with, everything from glow-in-the-dark clocks to medicines that promised miraculous cures for nearly every ailment. For her efforts, Marie Curie also suffered from chronic fatigue, had a miscarriage and eventually lost her life in 1934 from years of inhaling the poisonous radon gas that is

a decay product of radium. Though Curie saw her discovery as a potential remedy for disease — which it indeed is, widely used in cancer therapy — just a decade after her death, scientists with the Manhattan Project were hard at work turning the power of the atom into a weapon that would be used against the Japanese in 1945. As they perfected ever more potent kinds of nuclear bombs, however, the use of the atom for energy was being touted again as a miraculous

NO AMOUNT OF RADIATION IS SAFE. HOW MUCH RISK IS ACCEPTABLE BECOMES A POLITICAL, AND OFTEN EMOTIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH DISCUSSION solution for all of humanity’s energy needs. 45 OCTOBER 2014

Today, there are 430 commercial reactors in 31 countries, producing as much electricity from nuclear energy as all sources combined in 1960. Nuclear supplies almost 11.5 percent of global electricity needs and because of regional grids, many more countries — such as Denmark and Italy — benefit from nucleargenerated power than merely those that have their own reactors. Proponents of nuclear argue that it is a renewable source of energy, cleaner than fossil fuels and thereby less of a contributor to greenhouse gasses and climate change. Nuclear supporters also claim that it is a relatively cheap and stable energy source and has the advantage of using fuel that is on site, rather than fuel that needs frequent replenishment.Even so, whenever radiation is involved, there are catches.

SUNLIGHT IS A VITAL GIVER OF LIFE AS WELL AS A FORM OF RADIATION. SO IS THE HEAT THAT POPS THE POPCORN IN YOUR MICROWAVE Rule of thumb — no amount of radiation is safe. Technically put, that’s called the linear no-threshold, or LNT, theory and it holds that there is no “zero risk’’ when it comes to exposure to radiation. Radiation presents the classic conundrum: we can’t live with it, and we can’t live without it. But how much risk is unavoidable, or even acceptable? That’s where radiation becomes a political, and often emotional, public health question. 46 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

We live in a world — we have, in fact, evolved to live in a world — that is sizzling and cracking with radiation. Sunlight, for example, is both a vital giver of life, and a form of radiation. So are the songs you listen to on the radio, the voices you hear on your cell phone, the heat that pops your popcorn in the microwave. Some of these forms of radiation present their own particular dangers; skin cancer for sunlight, for example, or the still-underinvestigation impact of extremely frequent mobile phone usage. “It is present in the air we breathe, the food we eat, the water we drink, and in the construction materials used to build our homes,’’ notes a United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). “Certain foods, such as bananas and brazil nuts, naturally contain higher levels of radiation than other foods. Brick and stone homes have higher natural radiation levels than homes made of other materials such as wood.’’ The NRC goes on to explain that the US Capitol building in Washington D.C., which is largely constructed of granite, contains higher levels of natural radiation than most homes. It also stresses that levels of natural or background radiation vary greatly from one location to the next. For instance, residents of land-locked Colorado are exposed to more natural radiation than residents of the east or west coast of the US because Colorado has more cosmic radiation at a higher altitude and more terrestrial radiation from soils rich in naturally occurring uranium. It adds, “A lot of our natural exposure is due to radon, a gas from the Earth’s crust that is present

NUCLEAR MATTERS

PHOTOS: SPL/CLICK PHOTOS (MAIN, TOP LEFT); EVERETT/TPG/CLICK PHOTOS; CORBIS (FUEL ROD); GETTY IMAGES (THREE MILE ISLAND)

MARIE CURIE

ALONG WITH EVERYTHING ELSE, WE CAN THANK THIS POLISH GENIUS AND NOBEL PRIZE WINNER FOR COINING THE VERY TERM ‘RADIOACTIVITY’. IT WAS PERHAPS WITH HER DISCOVERY IN MIND THAT SHE SAID: “NOTHING IN LIFE IS TO BE FEARED, IT IS ONLY TO BE UNDERSTOOD. NOW IS THE TIME TO UNDERSTAND MORE, SO THAT WE MAY FEAR LESS.”

ABOVE FUEL RODS BEING LOADED INTO A NUCLEAR POWER STATION'S REACTOR CORE, IN ARDENNES, FRANCE FAR LEFT THE NUCLEAR FUEL ASSEMBLY AT THE NOVOSIBIRSK CHEMICAL CONCENTRATE WORKS IN SOUTHERN SIBERIA, RUSSIA LEFT A SPENT NUCLEAR FUEL ROD IN A COOLING POND GLOWS A BRIGHT BLUE CENTRE THE MOST SERIOUS ACCIDENT IN U.S. COMMERCIAL NUCLEAR POWER PLANT OPERATING HISTORY, OCCURED IN 1979 AT THREE MILE ISLAND IN PENNSYLVANIA 47 OCTOBER 2014

HAZARD SYMBOLS LEFT WORKERS WATCH THER MONUCLEAR DETONATION DURING SOUTH PACIFIC TESTS BELOW

NON-IONISING RADIATION

LEFT BELOW A HOUSE DISINTEGRATES DURING AN ATOM BOMB TEST IN NEVADA BELOW

MICROWAVE OVENS, TOASTERS, TV, MOBILE PHONES — ALL THESE AND MORE USE NONIONIZING FORMS OF RADIATION. RADAR, UV LIGHT AND VISIBLE LIGHT ALL FORM PART OF THIS FAMILY TOO. SOME FORMS, HOWEVER, CAN BE HIGHLY DANGEROUS. OVEREXPOSURE TO UV LIGHT, FOR EXAMPLE, CAN CAUSE SKIN CANCERS

BELOW A DUMMY SHOWS THE EFFECTS OF AN ATOM BOMB DURING TESTING IN THE DESERT

THE ISO 21482 HIGH LEVEL SEALED SOURCE RADIATION SYMBOL THE SYMBOL WITH THE LONG NAME HAS A SIMPLE MESSAGE: WARNING OF THE DANGEROUS PRESENCE OF RADIATION THAT CAN CAUSE DEATH OR SERIOUS INJURY IF HANDLED CARELESSLY

THE EYE-CATCHING ‘SUNBURST’ SYMBOL WILL OFTEN HAVE SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION WRITTEN ON ITS TAIL, INCLUDING: LASER PROTECTIVE EYEWEAR REQUIRED, INVISIBLE LASER RADIATION, KNOCK BEFORE ENTERING

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES

LASER HAZARD

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NUCLEAR MATTERS

in the air we breathe.’’ Radon, which has no odour or colour, was the same gas that killed Madame Curie. It accounts for about half of the natural “background radiation’’ that is around us, and is the biggest cause of lung cancer for non-smokers. There are other radiation risks that most of us are willing to take. If you are a frequent flyer, your risk of cancer is higher than if you stay on the ground all your life, as passengers on jetliners cruising at four to seven miles are exposed to about 100 times more cosmic

rays than somebody who just stays home. Live in La Paz, Bolivia? Lots of exposure there. Ever eat plants or animals? They contain radionuclides. Seafood is especially “hot’’ and so are those brazil nuts the NRC mentioned. Any of these things could, in theory, be a link in the chain to radiationrelated illness or death. But radiation comes in five forms that no one disputes can kill us — alpha particles, beta particles, gamma rays, neutrons and X-rays. These kinds of radiation, called ionizing radiation, are

powerful enough to change the way the matter that they come into contact with holds together. In living tissue, that’s where cancer or catastrophic breakdown on the cellular level comes in. Ionizing radiation in high enough doses can break cells down to the point that they either die outright or are altered and repair themselves, but repair themselves in the wrong way, causing problems — such as cancer — down the road. In high doses, measured in a unit called a gray (Gy), the effects of radiation are

obvious. At the lower end of the potentially fatal dosage spectrum, victims of Acute Radiation Sickness (ARS) get nausea, fevers and suffer bone marrow damage. They can recover in anything from a few weeks to a few years. Up the dosage to over 1 Gy and death may come from internal bleeding or infection. Higher dosages of 6 Gy brings diarrhea as intestinal tract cells die wholesale. Death becomes a certainty at about 10 Gy, and will come in a matter of weeks. Fifty Gy is enough to cause the collapse of the cardiovascular and central nervous systems and kill its victim within a few days.

A FREQUENT FLYER'S RISK OF CANCER IS QUITE HIGH AS JETLINERS THAT CRUISE AT 4 TO 7 MILES ARE EXPOSED TO HUNDRED TIMES MORE COSMIC RAYS Unless you are an emergency worker at a nuclear facility or survive the blast of a nuclear attack, ARS is not a crucial realworld concern. Despite the massive meltdown and radiation leak that was Chernobyl, the number of workers who died of ARS is 28. There were no ARS deaths at Fukushima. What about smaller dosages, over longer periods? The answer will come down to statistics.

LEARNING FROM DISASTER Like Chernobyl before it, Fukushima will go down in history as a symbol of one of humanity’s closest calls 49 OCTOBER 2014

PEACE OUT

100,000 50,000 30,000 20,000 10,000

NOVEMBER

5,000 2,000

DELTA

1,000 500 400 100 50 36 10 6.0 CAMPAIGN FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT (CND)

400 250 100 40 10

5 3.5

PHOTOS: SPL/CLICK PHOTOS (MAIN); GETTY IMAGES

MOST PEOPLE KNOW IT AS THE '60s ‘PEACE’ SYMBOL, BUT IT WAS ACTUALLY DESIGNED IN 1958 FOR USE IN THE CND, BY A BRITISH CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTOR NAMED GERALD HOLTOM. BUT WHAT DOES IT MEAN? THE SYMBOL INCORPORATES THE SEMAPHORE LETTERS N AND D – FOR NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT AS HE LATER TOLD THE EDITOR OF PEACE NEWS, HOLTOM “WAS IN DESPAIR” IN 1958. “I DREW MYSELF: THE REPRESENTATIVE OF AN INDIVIDUAL IN DESPAIR, WITH HANDS OUTSTRETCHED OUTWARDS AND DOWNWARDS IN THE MANNER OF GOYA’S PEASANT BEFORE THE FIRING SQUAD. I FORMALIZED THE DRAWING INTO A LINE AND PUT A CIRCLE ROUND IT.”

2.0mSv

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0.4 0.1µSv

NUCLEAR MATTERS

HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH? Immediate severe vomitting and coma — death within hours 10min exposure to the Chernobyl reactor core after meltdown Death inevitable within 2 to 3 weeks Highly targeted dose used in cancer radiotherapy Fatal dose Extremely severe radiation dose — high chance of fatality Severe radiation poisoning, nausea and vomitting, but recovery likely Temporary radiation sickness. Nausea, low blood cell count. Not fatal. Per hour levels in surface water in tunnels outside Fukushima No.2 reactor Slight effect. Decrease in blood cell counts — return to normal in a few days Maximum radiation levels detected at Fukushima per hour Annual dose at which increased lifetime cancer risk is evident

Maximum yearly dose permitted for US radiation workers Smoking 1.5 packs a day for a year Average CT scan Dose from spending one hour on the grounds at Chernobyl in 2010 Average dose of natural background radiation per person per year (varies wildly)

Yearly dose per person from food per year Release limit for a nuclear power plant for a year Chest X-ray

Flight from New York to Los Angeles Background dose received by an average person on an average day

Dental X-ray Extra dose from one day in average town near Fukushima

BELOW THE DEFORMED CORPSE OF A PIGLET FOUND ON A FARM CLOSE TO THE CHERNOBYL REACTOR AFTER THE 1986 DISASTER

with the nuclear genie it has released from the bottle of science. But the full impact of the Chernobyl and Fukushima crises on health and ecosystems — and how we can avoid similar disasters in the future — will be the subject of intensive studies for decades to come. But the question may lie beyond the purview of science. Is it worth it? “We tend to think of biological effects of radiation in terms of their effect on living cells, ’’ says the NRC. “For low levels of radiation exposure, the biological effects are so small they may not be detected,’’ it says. “The body has repair mechanisms against damage induced by radiation as well as by chemical carcinogens. Although radiation may cause cancers at high doses and high dose rates, currently there is no data to establish unequivocally the occurrence of cancer following exposure to low doses and dose rates.’’ That’s not a dismissal of the linear-no-threshold idea. It just means the data isn’t conclusive, and that is why it is so difficult to make the public health decisions that our nuclear-power age society is now struggling with. We know that radiation is both beneficial in some circumstances and doses, and dangerous in others. Unfortunately, most of what

Natural radiation in human body Banana and brazil nut

1,000microSieverts(µSv) = 1.0 milliSieverts (mSv) 1,000mSv = 1.0 Gray (Gy) SOURCE: WWW.INFORMATIONISBEAUTIFUL.NET

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we know has been gleaned from the nuclear nightmares that we have survived — the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the disasters of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. Fukushima, in particular, may provide us with a wealth of better data.

Soon after the 2011 disaster, Fukushima Prefecture launched the unprecedented, 30-year Health Management Survey to investigate longterm, low-dose radiation exposure, with Fukushima Medical University leading the planning and implementation. According to an early report by the core research team, the primary purposes of the survey are to “monitor the long-term health of residents, promote their future well-being, and confirm whether long-term low-dose radiation exposure has health effects’.’ The survey will estimate levels of external radiation exposure among all 2.05 million residents. It will include internal radiation levels estimates carried out across Fukushima using medical devices called whole-body counters, thyroid ultrasound examinations for all Fukushima children aged 18 years or younger and comprehensive health checks for all residents from the evacuation zones, 52 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES (TOP, LEFT); VII/CLICK PHOTOS (OPPOSITE)

RADIOACTIVE IODINE-131 ACCUMULATES IN THE THYROID GLAND AND CHILDREN ARE PARTICULARLY VULNERABLE AS IT CAUSES CANCER

NUCLEAR MATTERS

particularly pregnant women. Radioactive iodine-131, is being especially closely watched. It accumulates in the thyroid gland, and children’s still-developing thyroids are particularly vulnerable to cancer. Until they turn 20, about 360,000 children in Fukushima who were under the age of 18 at the time of the crisis will be given thyroid tests every two years. Risk of thyroid cancer from iodine-131 is at its highest for infants and small children, diminishes in early adulthood and is very low after middle age. Because of the characteristics of iodine-131, it is widely spread in the atmosphere, returns to the ground in rainfall and accumulates easily in the grass that cows graze on, and is then passed on to the children who ingest dairy products. According to postChernobyl studies, more than two million children were exposed to the fallout aftermath of iodine-131 as far as 500 kilometres away from the reactor. That impact on health was felt far and wide, with increases of 100 times the normal incidence level of thyroid cancer reported in children from Belarus to eastern parts of the Russian Federation. The experience of Chernobyl prompted authorities to be ready with iodine pills in the case of a similar accident, and their availability in Fukushima may prove to save lives. After surveying roughly 38,000 children in Fukushima, 12 confirmed cases of juvenile thyroid cancer and 15 cases of suspected cancer were detected as of last year. Researchers stress that it remains impossible to determine what caused the cancers — the increase in screening itself could have

RADIATION IN THE WORLD

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SECONDS THE REDUCTION IN LIFE EXPECTANCY FROM A DOSE OF 10ΜSV IS ABOUT 1.2 MINUTES

10

CALORIES ACCORDING TO THE UNITED STATES NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISION: “THIS IS EQUIVALENT TO THE REDUCTION IN LIFE EXPECTANCY FROM CROSSING THE STREET THREE TIMES, TAKING THREE PUFFS ON A CIGARETTE, OR CONSUMING 10 EXTRA CALORIES (FOR A PERSON WHO IS OVERWEIGHT).”

TOP THE EMPTY CONTROL REACTOR PANEL UNIT 4 FAR LEFT THE EFFECTS OF THE 1986 CHEROBYL DISASTER IN UKRAINE ARE PLAIN TO SEE; A HOSPITAL OPERATING THEATRE LIES EMPTY LEFT A SCRAP COLLECTOR, KNOWN AS 'BOSS', SCAVENGES FOR SCRAP METAL IN THE ABANDONED TOWN OF PRIPYAT 53 OCTOBER 2014

NUCLEAR MATTERS

DESPITE THE NUCLEAR NIGHTMARE OF FUKUSHIMA, SCIENTISTS SAY THERE WILL BE ONLY A SLIGHT UPSWING IN THE NUMBER OF CANCER CASES, LUCKILY 54 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

led to the detection of more cases. But to improve the statistical validity of the results, and shine light on the direct radiation link, studies are being conducted in other places in Japan that were not affected by the disaster to establish control data. Here’s something to think about, however. Considering how shocking the disaster at Fukushima was —the drama broadcast live on television screens around

the world, the heroic rescue efforts, the diaspora of more than 100,000 residents, the national and international trauma of a nuclear nightmare come true — the current consensus among the international scientific community is surprising: Fukushima’s impact on health, or at least on the likelihood of any significant upswing in the number of cancer cases there, will likely be very small.

According to a study released in April by the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, no radiation-related deaths or acute diseases have been observed among the workers and general public exposed to radiation from the Fukushima incident, and none are expected. “The doses to the general public, both those incurred during the first year and

PHOTOS: CORBIS

MINERS MILLING A SHAFT AT THE AILING DISPOSAL SITE FOR NUCLEAR WASTE IN ASSE, REMLINGEN, GERMANY

NUCLEAR MATTERS

RADIATION IN THE WORLD

30 DAYS “IT WILL TAKE SOMETHING MORE THAN A NUCLEAR ATTACK TO WIPE OUT TAXPAYERS’ OBLIGATIONS TO THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE,” NOTED THE NEW YORK TIMES IN 1989. AN INTERNAL MANUAL TO IRS EMPLOYEES NOTED THAT OPERATIONS WOULD CONTINUE EVEN IF ATOMIC WAR BROKE OUT. WITHIN 30 DAYS OF AN ATTACK EMERGENCY, THE AGENCY WOULD BEGIN COLLECTING TAXES AGAIN

SUNTAN THE AMERICAN FLAGS PLACED ON THE MOON ARE STILL THERE – BUT THEY’VE BEEN FADED TO THE BLANK WHITENESS OF A TABLECLOTH, THANKS TO RADIATION FROM THE SUN

CONSTRUCTED OF GRANITE, THE US CAPITOL BUILDING HAS HIGHER LEVELS OF NATURAL RADIATION THAN MOST HOMES. RADIATION IS A MYSTERIOUS THREAT TO MOST PEOPLE 56 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

estimated for their lifetimes, are generally low or very low,’’ it said. “No discernible increased incidence of radiation-related health effects are expected among exposed members of the public or their descendants.’’ The UN study, noting the Fukushima health survey’s results to date, said the data now available suggests there will not be an increase in thyroid cancer that can be directly attributed to the Fukushima disaster, and added that an increase in cancer incidence in the adult population that can

be attributed to radiation exposure from the accident “is not expected’’. It concluded with another important insight — what might be called the Godzilla factor — radiation, to most people, is a frightening, mysterious threat. The disaster of Fukushima left those directly affected with a severe psychological load. Post-traumatic stress disorders, depression, shattered families — all have taken a toll on the health of society. Our fear of radiation is, in itself, a major health threat when the monster of nuclear disaster rears its head before us.

COST OF THE GILBERT U-238 ATOMIC ENERGY LABORATORY, A TOY SOLD IN THE 1950'S THAT CAME WITH LOW-LEVEL RADIATION SOURCES AND FOUR URANIUM-BEARING ORE SAMPLES

1% AS BILL BRYSON NOTES IN A SHORT HISTORY OF NEARLY EVERYTHING, EVEN WATCHING STATIC CAN BE A WONDROUS EXPERIENCE. “TUNE YOUR TELEVISION TO A CHANNEL IT DOESN'T RECEIVE AND ABOUT 1 PERCENT OF THE DANCING STATIC YOU SEE IS ACCOUNTED FOR BY THIS ANCIENT REMNANT OF THE BIG BANG. REMEMBER THAT YOU CAN ALWAYS WATCH THE BIRTH OF THE UNIVERSE”

PHOTOS: REUTERS

A TECHNICIAN EXAMINES A MOBILE PHONE — MEASURING THE IMPACT OF ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION ON THE BODY

WHEN PUNK ROCK DESCENDED, IT WAS CALLED DANGEROUS, DESPICABLE AND MORALLY BANKRUPT. TODAY, FORTY YEARS LATER, INSPITE OF ITS COUNTER-CULTURE IDEALS BEING CO-OPTED INTO THE MAINSTREAM — IT STILL FUELS DISSENTING VOICES EVERYWHERE. ILIYAS ONG DELVES INTO THE MUSIC, POLITICS, BUSINESS AND ART OF PUNK

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PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

PUNK: PACKING IN A PUNCH

CULT LIFE

A PUNK ROCK FAN AT A CONCERT BY THE BRITISH BAND THE CLASH, IN STOCKHOLM

T wo days before Queen Elizabeth II had been due to take her royal barge down London's River Thames as part of her Silver Jubilee celebrations in June 1977, fireworks of a different sort erupted. Four young men in rowdy clothes and rowdier haircuts were attempting the exact route, but not to grace the event. They were there to tell the monarchy, in no kind words, to f..k off. They called themselves the Sex Pistols.

PUNK IS NOT JUST ABOUT THE MUSIC AND MOHAWKS. IT IS A POLITICAL, SOCIAL AND CULTURAL MOVEMENT FOUNDED UPON A FIERCE REACTION TO THE MAINSTREAM This was the legendary punk rock quartet at the height of their infamy. As their boat passed the Houses of Parliament, the band hurled the barbed lyrics of God Save the Queen and Anarchy in the UK at the very establishment they were railing against. It wasn’t long before the police forced the vessel to dock and 60 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

arrested everyone on it. But it was too late: the river gig had already cemented the Pistols in punk mythology. It was, as The Observer put it, “the last and greatest outbreak of popbased moral pandemonium”. Essentially, punk is not just about the music and mohawks — it is as much a political, social and cultural movement. Founded upon anti-authoritarian and fiercely independent beliefs, punk saw itself as a reaction against the mainstream. A counter-culture whose ‘doit-yourself’ ethic was itself meant as a middle finger in the face of consumerism and commercialism. What began as a genre of music had morphed into a manifesto of rebellion, which made the Pistols’ Silver Jubilee hijacking both the finest and lowest moment of the punks. On the one hand it thoroughly captured the vitriol of the movement, and on the other it demonstrated its futility. The British monarch recently celebrated her 60th anniversary on the throne, and the systems that buttress her rule haven’t yet been uprooted. So was punk all sound and fury signifying nothing at all? Not quite. Almost four decades after that night in 1977, punk lives on, albeit in less inflammatory guises. The ideals of punk have been co-opted into business culture as well as the worlds of art and design, yet they still fuel dissenting voices in marginalised communities across the globe. Even in music, punk has evolved in sound but not spirit. As the punk rock band Crass notoriously graffitied on a wall outside a London club, just a few months after the Pistols’ stunt: “Punk is dead. Long live punk.”

ABOVE THE SEX PISTOLS PERFORM IN COPENHAGEN, DENMARK IN 1977, AT THE HEIGHT OF THEIR INFAMY. FROM LEFT TO RIGHT SID VICIOUS, JOHNNY ROTTEN AND STEVE JONES

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

CULT LIFE

JUST A BOY BAND? For all their anarchic bluster, The Sex Pistols do share similarities with the likes of NSync, Westlife and One Direction — the band was manufactured. Financed by manager Malcolm McLaren, his aim was to produce as much return on as little investment as possible. But does this make them one of the first boy bands? Critics of their musical ability say yes. Others such as Dominic Mod, disagree totally and told The Guardian, "Those who bleat today that they lack credibility forget they didn't have any credibility in the first place".

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in particular that is widely regarded as the epicenter of the subculture at the time. CBGB stood for “country, bluegrass and blues”, but call that false advertising.

IN THE ACEH PROVINCE IN INDONESIA, PUNK ROCK BANDS DEFY OPPRESSIVE LAWS DESPITE ROUTINE ARRESTS AND POLICE VIOLENCE Young bands such as the Ramones, Television and Blondie were rejecting the arena rock and disco culture, popular at the time for tracks that were as brutal as they were proudly rudimentary. There was very little technique involved; it was as though these acts distilled raw energy into noisy, three-minute-long blitzkrieg bops. Punk rock crackled with pure electricity and ignited a generation. The world hadn’t heard or seen anything like it before. Perhaps Iggy Pop, lead 62 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

singer of The Stooges, put it best in a 1977 television interview: “That music is so powerful that it’s quite beyond my control. When I’m in the grips of it, I don’t feel pleasure and I don’t feel pain, either physically or emotionally. Do you understand what I’m talking about? Have you ever felt like that? When you just couldn’t feel anything, and you didn’t want to either.” John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols had another take: “If you are pissing people off, you know you are doing something right.” The aggression and sinew of punk rock lends itself easily to protest. It was, just as Bob Dylan’s folk tried and failed to do a decade earlier, supposed to be a voice of change. “The Sex Pistols, to me, was not a negative band or narcissistic,” Johnny Rotten, vocalist of the band, clarified to The Independent. “It was positive. And it created deliberate, purposeful, helpful change.” The Pistols might have disbanded in 1978, yet those words have been echoed by punks everywhere from Berlin to Bangkok in the decades since. Angst and leather jackets, it seems, are limited neither by time nor space. Take the case of Myanmar. The Southeast Asian nation’s political tumult and hardline military junta provided fertile ground for a legion of disaffected youth. Kyaw Kyaw is one of them. In September 2007, when the monk-led Saffron Revolution turned violent, the then 19-year-old and a few friends let loose their frustrations by ripping out a couple of power chords on electric guitars. They called the band Rebel Riot. Together with other Yangon-based punk rock outfits, Rebel Riot galvanised a punk community in the Burmese capital — currently about 200-strong, Kyaw Kyaw

estimates — that pitched themselves against the ironfisted regime. Punk rock, fuelled by rebellious images and styles of the movement’s heydays in the West, provided young Burmese a conviction around which to muster. They were now a tribe facing a common foe. “No fear! No indecision! Rage against the system of the oppressors!” screams Kyaw Kyaw on one track. According to several reports, punks in Myanmar used to be routinely arrested and subjected to police violence. Even as the country relaxed its censorship laws and grew increasingly tolerant of punks, they had to take precautions. So band rehearsals had to be held on the outskirts of Yangon, in abandoned buildings whose walls had to be soundproofed with styrofoam and other makeshift material. Gigs were also only open to fellow mohawks, but undercover cops were rumoured to hide among the audience. “We young people in Burma have become punks to protest against the political and economic situation in our country. If we just accept what’s going on here, nothing will change,” Kyaw Kyaw told the German news magazine Der Spiegel. “I’m doing everything I can to shake people up. Only a revolution can change the system.” Three years after Rebel Riot rocked the junta, Myanmar held its watershed general elections — the first in two decades. But it was largely dismissed. Allegations of bribery, voter intimidation, rigging and bias were lobbed at the elections commission. Two opposition parties eventually conceded, and the militarylinked party took control. To Kyaw Kyaw, it was a case of ‘meet the new boss, same as the old boss’. “The change to democracy is just a change in

words, not a real change,” he was quoted as saying. So as the spectre of the elections fades away and the country implements sweeping reforms, Rebel Riot are not turning down their amplifiers. When in 2013 anti-Muslim monks threatened to shed blood, punks were the only local community bold enough to stand against them. Monks in Myanmar are typically revered, and Buddhism is the dominant religion there. But that’s the thing about punks: tradition be damned. “[These monks] are nationalists, fascists. No one wants to hear it, but it’s true,” Kyaw Kyaw told the Associated Press. Through fiery songs condemning religious intolerance and hypocrisy, Rebel Riot, like the Sex Pistols before them, are hoping to spark a change in the people around them. “They can arrest us, we don’t care. Or we can be attacked by certain groups. We don’t care, we’ve prepared ourselves for this mentally. But we want to speak our minds.” Myanmar isn’t the only country in which the punk diaspora has found renewed vitality. In Indonesia, particularly in the Aceh province, one that is ruled by Sharia law, punk rock bands oppose oppressive laws and religious fundamentalism. In Iraq, ‘emo’ (short for emotional hardcore music, whose roots are in punk rock) is prevalent enough to earn the ire of the government. And in Russia, the punk rock performance art group Pussy Riot made headlines in early 2012 when they were arrested for a gig in which they criticised Vladimir Putin in an old church, with neon balaclavas on. In the UK and US, punk has long exorcised its revolutionary id. In these places, it’s as though it was only yesterday that Johnny Rotten and the rest of the Pistols

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

RAW POWER Of its many origin stories, one goes like this. Punk rock as we know it began in the mid ’70s in New York City. It was spit and polished in the East Village, in one club

CULT LIFE

THE PUNK ROCK CLUB CBGB, IN NEW YORK CITY’S EAST VILLAGE, WAS SAID TO BE THE EPICENTER OF THE PUNK ROCK AND NEW WAVE SUBCULTURE IN THE '70S AND '80S WITH BANDS SUCH AS THE RAMONES AND BLONDIE TAKING TO ITS STAGE (LEFT). THE CLUB, WHICH CLOSED IN 2006 AFTER A DISPUTE OVER UNPAID RENT, HOSTED A FINAL CONCERT WITH PATTI SMITH LISTED AS ITS FINAL PERFORMER

THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF PUNK

ADIOS, CBGB

LOW The Ramones. The Heartbreakers. The Dead Boys. The Cramps, SUICIDE, You name it, some of punk’s biggest stars have played in this iconic New York venue. Yet in 2006, due to rising rents, it closed down. It was later replaced by high-end fashion boutique John Varvatos, and the entire area has become highly gentrified, including the grimy alley behind CBGB. A member of The Dead Boys later griped, “All of Manhattan has lost its soul to money lords,” adding, “If that alley could talk… it’s seen it all.”

REALLY ROTTEN ADVERTISING

LOW In 2008, fans of Johnny Rotten were aghast to see the brash leader of the Sex Pistols in a TV commercial. To add insult to injury, an AD selling boring old BUTTER ! This is the same antiestablishmentarian who faxed an expletivelaced letter to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006, protesting the fact that the Sex Pistols were about to be inducted there. The letter was dryly read out by the co-founder of the museum at the ceremony. It’s said Rotten earned US$8 million for his ad. Maybe the Hall of Fame just weren’t offering enough cash? 64 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

sailed down the Thames, their instruments set to stun.

IT'S ALL ART In early 2008, the street artist Shepard Fairey was putting the final touches to a poster that would be used by the Obama presidential campaign. It featured a portrait of the thenSenator expressed in the style of Soviet Constructivism, with strong outlines and loud colours presenting Obama as a forwardlooking leader. The word ‘Hope’ emblazons the bottom of the artwork in bold type. When the so-called ‘Hope poster’ was released later that year, it immediately went viral. Digital and silkscreened versions flooded the US, and it is now regarded as one of the iconic images of the campaign, later acquired by the Smithsonian Institute. But one year after its launch, the

secret was let out: to create the poster, Fairey had modified — some would say illegally — a copyrighted photograph of Obama taken by an Associated Press photographer in 2006. Here’s what many might not want to admit about punk: it is as much a visual style as it is all that chestthumping, bird-flipping, hay-making venom. The movement’s appetite for rebellion was reflected in the way it visually branded itself, and the aesthetic lives on in latter-day artists and designers such as Fairey. And indeed, appropriation is central to this. “The cultures that inspire me creatively — punk rock, skateboarding, and streetwear — all rely heavily on appropriation art, both because they are irreverent cultures, questioning the status quo, and because they

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

DOOKIE HERE

HIGH It recently turned 20, but has lost none of its power. This Green Day release is one of the best-selling poppunk efforts of all time. It was Rolling Stone's number one album of 1994, at a time when Top 40 radio was playing soppy dreck like Kenny G and I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston. Way back in 1999 it had already been certified ten-times Platinum, having sold 10 million copies in the US alone. The New York Times raved over Dookie’s “funny, catchy, high-powered songs about whining and channel-surfing; apathy has rarely sounded so passionate.”

CULT LIFE

HEY! HO! LET'S GO! Never mind their ‘three-chords-and-we-gota-song’ mantra, the Ramones are up there with guitar gods Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. The quartet in 2002 became the first punk rock band to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They also remain the only punkers to win a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, but only one founding member — Tommy Ramone — had been alive to receive it. Tommy died of cancer in July 2014, closing the chapter on one of the world’s most exciting and vital bands.

are cultures with a rapid metabolism and throwaway mentality,” Fairey later explained. It’s deliciously ironic that the most famous image of the most powerful man on Earth was borne out of punk’s scuzzy influence. But decades before Fairey worked on the ‘Hope poster’, one of his design heroes did something similar to a photograph of Queen Elizabeth II. Jamie Reid had ‘borrowed’ a portrait by famed royal photographer Cecil Beaton, treated it in the style of black-and-white Xerox copies, and stitched a safety pin — a symbol of punk — to Her Majesty’s lips. The image was used as publicity material for the Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen, and has since been immortalised as a punk icon. There is another curious quirk Reid relies upon in

his designs for the Pistols: the use of cut-and-paste lettering you’d expect to find on a ransom note. Designers in the 1970s worked with typesetters to ensure clarity and readability. Text would be situated within a tight ‘grid’ and fonts used in a single design would have either come from the same family or have compatible elements. This continues to be standard practice today. Punk artists like Reid, on the other hand, preferred the scissors and stencil. These tools freed them from convention and allowed them to mash-up and remix popular culture detritus well before such terms became buzzwords of the digital age. Look at punk album covers such as the Crass’s The Feeding of the 5000 and the Buzzcock’s Orgasm Addict and you’ll

find graphic punchlines that are subversive, demanding of attention and intentionally unpolished. Pretty much just like the music. “Punk, being a counter-cultural and transgressive reaction to the political climate and established social mores in the West, held great appeal to the artistic and design community,” Darryl Lim, a design educator at Singapore’s LASALLE College of the Arts and a practising designer at his studio Terrain, tells Discovery Channel Magazine. According to him, punk’s inherently visual nature — record covers, flyers, fashion, and so on — attracted artists and designers “as it provided an avenue or canvas for their chosen modes of expression”. “There were also instances when performance and visual artists worked in concert with

punk bands, or were part of punk bands themselves. Prominently, the band Crass featured an extensive founding lineup of artists, punks and designers,” he continues. The ‘messthetic’ of punk is still alive and well. Besides Fairey, other designers such as David Carson, Neville Brody and the acclaimed Dutch studio Experimental Jetset continue to bear the torch. In the early 1990s, Carson, then considered the l’enfant terrible of graphic design, was working on his alternative rock and roll magazine Ray Gun when he stumbled upon an article he absolutely hated. So he formatted the entire story in Dingbat. Yes, the typeface made up of symbols. How about that for punk? Call it collage, bricolage or pastiche, the punk-influenced visual dialect is now being taken up by — shudder — the mainstream. It has infiltrated everything from movies (Fight Club’s poster is all stencils and graffiti) to fashion (Jean Paul Gaultier’s 2014 Paris Fashion Week collection features safety pins, mohicans and piercings galore) to brand identities (the ‘Hope poster’). So critical is punk to art and design that Lim teaches a class on its history, theory and influence on graphic design. He sums up, “The do-it-yourself attitude and ethic presents itself in how I approach various projects under my wing and in the way I teach my students how to approach design problems.”

AND OUT COME THE WOLVES There was a member of the Sex Pistols entourage onboard that fateful cruise in London whose name will surprise many: Richard Branson. The billionaire founder of Virgin Group, then a fresh-faced lad, had signed the band onto his record label. Ever the 65 OCTOBER 2014

THE DOOMED COUPLE

LOW Meet Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen, punk rock’s Romeo and Juliet. He the bassist for the Sex Pistols and she a diehard fan, their drug-fuelled frenzy of a relationship ended violently. In 1978, the 20-year-old Spungen was found dead in her hotel room, a stab wound to her abdomen. Vicious was the only one at the scene but maintained his innocence. Distraught, he then attempted suicide numerous times, claiming he wanted to be with ‘his Nancy’. Less than four months after Spungen’s death, Vicious, 21, died from a heroin overdose. It's unclear if it was accidental or intentional.

ANTI-FASHION FASHION

LOW When the Sex Pistols were kitting themselves out in ragged tartans kilts, they probably had no idea these emblems of rebellion would one day be stars of a big museum exhibition in 2013 ¡¡titled, 'Punk: Chaos to Couture'. organised by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, it was a landmark show that featured the trashy, err, ‘fashion’ of punk as interpreted by sartorial glitterati such as Martin Margiela and Calvin Klein. Unsurprisingly, the exhibition was panned. “Fashion has rarely looked as frivolous, beside-thepoint and one-percentish as here,” sneered a New York Times review.

SHUT YOUR GOB

LOW Apart from the safety pins, one thing marks true punk rockers: they spit a lot. Like headbanging at a heavy metal gig, phlegm is a theme at most punk concerts. Peter Perrett of The Only Ones recalls, “I remember seeing The Clash take to the stage in a hail of spit that looked like a snowstorm!” In fact the band’s drummer Joe Strummer theorises that’s how he caught hepatitis — from a gob of flying fan mucus that landed in his mouth. Was ‘gobbing’ a mark of respect, or a testimony to the gross-out power of the genre? Maybe a bit of both. 66 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

shrewd businessman, he had hoped the stunt would drum up publicity for the punk rock outfit. You could say he underestimated the results of the ‘marketing campaign’. “The band had done nothing wrong, nobody had done anything wrong, but the very act of raiding the boat and then about 12 policemen physically beating up Malcolm McLaren [the band’s manager] with truncheons obviously propelled the Sex Pistols onto the front pages of all the papers,” Branson later told The Independent. Released a few months after the Silver Jubilee, the band’s first and only album — Never Mind the Bollocks Here Come the Sex Pistols — debuted at the top of the UK Album Charts. In other words, the event proved that subversion sells. When McLaren said punk rock is a “statement of self-rule, of ultimate independence, of do-ityourself”, he was also hinting at the business opportunities the movement had opened up. After all, this was a man who admitted he thought of the Pistols as a commodity — a brand rather than a band. These punk ideas have led to the founding of several risqué companies that Matt Mason, author of The Pirate’s Dilemma, dubs ‘Punk Businesses’. One of them is VICE Media, founded by three bootstrapping punk rockers from Montreal. The company is best known for printing VICE magazine, a hip publication whose selling point is its unique brand of investigative journalism: “colourful, violent and controversial”, according to Mason. Sample articles include ‘Cooking with Cocaine’ and ‘How to Make it in Porn’. “Style magazines such as

VICE have carried on that [punk] tradition, turning this subversive practice into a business plan. Like all successful youth cultures, punk has been co-opted by the establishment,” Mason writes. Today, VICE Media delves into

THERE WAS A MEMBER OF THE SEX PISTOLS ENTOURAGE ONBOARD THAT FATEFUL CRUISE IN JUNE 1977 IN LONDON WHOSE NAME WILL SURPRISE MANY: RICHARD BRANSON, THE BILLIONAIRE FOUNDER OF VIRGIN GROUP film, music, events and books, and is valued at US$1.4 billion. Alongside subversion, ‘disruption’ is another powerful corporate weapon, a favourite of startups looking to overturn existing business models. Some entrepreneurs go as far to link innovative disruption to the punk movement. For example, in their surveys of Berlin’s thriving startup environment, both Bloomberg News and the Financial Times commended the city’s ‘punk’

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES (PUNKS)

THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF PUNK

CULT LIFE

PUNK MUSIC FANS POSE DURING A 1979 SEX PISTOLS CONCERT AT THE WINTERLAND IN SAN FRANCISCO OPPOSITE DESIGNER JAMIE REID'S ICONIC REIMAGINING OF A CECIL BEATON PORTRAIT OF THE QUEEN BECAME THE SEX PISTOLS ALBUM COVER — AND A SYMBOL OF PUNK

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"YOU JUST PICK UP A CHORD, GO TWANG, AND YOU'VE GOT MUSIC," ACCORDING TO SID VICIOUS, PERFORMING HERE WITH FRONTMAN JOHNNY ROTTEN AND THEIR BAND THE SEX PISTOLS

PHOTOS: CORBIS (OPPOSITE); GETTY IMAGES

CULT LIFE

PUNK ROCK WAS MORE THAN JUST MUSIC. IT ENCOMPASSED FASHION TOO. HERE, ICONIC SWEDISH PUNK ROCK FAN INGER, WITH A SAFETY PIN THROUGH HER CHEEK AND A SWASTIKA TATTOO ON HER FACE

THE HIGHS AND LOWS OF PUNK

POGO THE PUNK LOGO

HIGH Are people also jumping down in between their spit takes? Then you’re definitely at a punk gig — the Pogo is the genre’s signature way to throw shapes. It’s a move anyone can do, and seems to speak to punk’s inclusive, have-a-go message, just like the gloriously simplistic three chord songs. “The English are very inventive, so the English went a step further” with the Pogo, Debbie Harry once said to an audience. After you do this rather tiring dance for half an hour, she helpfully explained, the ideal way to cool down is to sprinkle beer over your head. Let’s just say you won’t leave a punk gig dry. #FREEPUSSYRIOT

HIGH Punk made world headlines in October 2012 when two members of punk rock performance art group Pussy Riot (below) were convicted for their stinging criticism of Vladimir Putin. It was a human rights nightmare, with everyone from Paul McCartney to Aung San Suu Kyi to the German parliament speaking up in defence of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina. So when the pair was given amnesty and released in December 2013, many saw it as a small victory — except for the punks themselves. “I don’t think the amnesty is a humanitarian act. I think it’s a PR stunt,” Alyokhina said.

PHOTOS: CORBIS (SID VICIOUS); GETTY IMAGES (PUNK HEAD SHOT); IGOR MUKHIN (PUSSY RIOT)

LONDON CALLING

HIGH The Clash’s 1980 classic “London Calling” was voted by Rolling Stone as 15th in the magazine’s ‘500 Greatest Songs of All Time’ list, the highestplaced punk rock tune. While not the wildest, the song was lauded for channelling the social ills — unemployment, racial conflict and drug problems — Britain had been facing at the time. Its “hellbent atmosphere” made the band sound as though they were “marching into battle”, according to the rock ‘n’ roll bible.

vibe as conducive. Old punks might lament it, but their anti-corporate sloganeering has been hijacked by their mortal enemies. The punks themselves got punked. “Berlin’s attitude is very punk, and that’s really important for startups, because they’re basically saying, ‘Okay, I’m going to do things my own way,’” Alex Ljung, co-founder of music sharing website SoundCloud, told Bloomberg News. Interestingly enough, there is a German magazine titled Business Punk that features “business rebels”, suits like Branson and Ljung who go against the grain. The day that capitalist leaders are labelled

as punks has arrived. And then there is the recent trend of crowdfunding. In a nutshell, these terms refer to a method of attaining capital and content from the masses (the ‘crowd’) as opposed to banks, investors, paid employees or other institutions. Hence, bypassing ‘the System’ and putting the power in the hands of ‘the People’. Just two years ago, Amanda Palmer, a musician who used to be in the punk act The Dresden Dolls, raised nearly US$1.2 million on Kickstarter to fund her solo album. And she believes crowdfunding is a logical continuation to how bands such as hers used to promote themselves.

CULT LIFE

LEFT SID VICIOUS, THE BASS GUITARIST FOR THE SEX PISTOLS RIGHT A FAN SHOWS OFF HIS SAFETY-PIN PIERCINGS AT A CONCERT BY ENGLISH PUNK BAND THE CLASH IN SWEDEN, 1977

“PUNK IS MUSICAL FREEDOM”, KURT COBAIN, THE LEAD SINGER OF GRUNGE BAND NIRVANA FAMOUSLY SAID. “IT’S SAYING, DOING AND PLAYING WHAT YOU WANT.” “[Kickstarter] is not much different than in the old days, where you’d get out there, see what demand was, and head off to the plant and print what you needed," she said in a Rolling Stone interview.

THE FUTURE OF PUNK Punk rock was never the same after 1977. The Sex Pistols were defunct, the Ramones were coddling pop fans, and punk soon splintered into a constellation of subgenres. These were often defined by location: for example the grim post-punk centred in post-industrial Manchester, UK; the raw hardcore punk from Southern California; the feminist ‘riot grrl’ movement

in Olympia, US; and the Seattle-based grunge scene. However, these subgenres share more than a common ancestor. The creed of the original class of ’77 is as relevant and as potent to the new school. “Punk is musical freedom,” Kurt Cobain, the lead singer of grunge band Nirvana, famously said. “It’s saying, doing and playing what you want. ‘Nirvana’ means freedom from pain, suffering and the external world, and that’s close to my definition of punk rock.” If Cobain is right, then would Green Day, a band influenced by The Clash but derided by reviewers for their derivative music, be considered ‘punk rock’? Or would that be

better suited for an iconoclast like Kanye West, whose Yeezus album the The New Yorker proclaimed as singular, brash and assaultive — adjectives that could be used to describe Johnny Rotten and Co? Or does it not matter? Punk is, as the critic Frank Kogan puts it in his book Real Punks Wear Black, a “Superword”: terms whose main function is to get people to fight over the ideals they represent. “For the word to be super, not only must people disagree on the ideal, but some must consciously or unconsciously keep changing what the word or ideal is supposed to designate so that the music is always inadequate to

the ideal, even if the music would have been adequate to yesterday’s version of the ideal,” Kogan writes. Punk as an aspiration can thus never be fulfilled; punk rock as a music can thus never be truly authentic. Perhaps the real punks don’t care. Kyaw Kyaw is still kicking up a ruckus in Yangon, Shepard Fairey has collaborated with the great Jamie Reid himself on a exhibition of punk art, Amanda Palmer’s crowdfunded album met with glowing reviews, and Kurt Cobain is still dead. Nothing will bring him back, and the rest of Nirvana have moved on, evolved, adapted. Punk will do the same.

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WITH THE POPULARITY OF CRIME INVESTIGATION SHOWS SUCH AS CSI ON THE RISE, TERMS LIKE “FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY” AND “CRIMINAL PROFILING” HAVE BECOME MAINSTREAM. BUT, HOW MUCH OF WHAT’S PORTRAYED ON TV IS TRUE? CAIN NUNNS AND RUBY LU SPEAK TO EXPERTS IN BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCE TO FIND OUT MORE ABOUT DEVIOUS MINDS

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

CRIMINAL

KILLER INSTINCTS

CHARLES SOBHRAJ, A FRENCH SERIAL KILLER OF INDIAN AND VIETNAMESE ORIGIN, PREYED ON WESTERN TOURISTS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA IN THE 1970S. KNOWN AS THE BIKINI KILLER, HE HAS CONFESSED TO 10 MURDERS AND HAS BEEN CONVICTED FOR ONE. SOBHRAJ HAS BEEN SENTENCED TO LIFE IMPRISONMENT

MINDS

29% OF KNOWN SERIAL KILLERS SUFFER FROM RECURRING HEADACHES AS CHILDREN

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PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES

Schizophrenic serial killer Richard Chase’s month-long rampage of cannibalistic murder in the late 1970s left six people dead, and the normally rather placid state capital of Sacramento, in California, in a heightened state of paranoia. Chase was convinced that Nazis from outer space were secretly poisoning him, slowly turning his blood into powder. A few years before his killing spree, the gaunt, scruffy and boyish-looking Californian had been institutionalised for injecting rabbit’s blood into his system.

KILLER INSTINCTS

e was running around drinking the blood of his victims. “First he killed cats, dogs, rabbits — and even a cow. But then he killed people. They called him the Vampire Killer,” says Dr Michael Stone, a professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in the US state of New York. With little else to go on and a scared public clamouring for answers, investigators turned to the newly established FBI Behavioral Science Unit. At Quantico, Virginia, two of its pioneering agents Russ Vorpagel and Robert Ressler were only too happy to stamp the fledgling department’s mark on the shadowy world of violent crime. “The FBI developed a behavioural unit around 35 years ago, where they thought there were commonalities between some of the serial killers they were having to confront,” says Stone, who hosted the Discovery Channel series Most Evil, which sent him around the United States interviewing serial killers and murderers. “There were similar patterns among them, which allowed the FBI to more quickly pinpoint the kind of perpetrators they should be looking for.” Stone says the similarities include serial killers being male, often psychopathic, from broken homes, the victims of abuse by a parent, or chronic drug and alcohol abusers. “There are certain characteristics that are common. Some of them were married — not too happily usually — but about 75 OCTOBER 2014

HAMILTON’S TYPES OF INSANITY It’s easy to forget just how quickly attitudes towards mental illness have changed over the years. Nowhere is this clearer than the 1883 manual by Dr Allan McLane Hamilton. Hamilton’s text is at once fascinating and discomforting, employing language that would be beyond unacceptable today. The neurologist theorised that in some cases, mental illness could be catalogued by a person’s appearance. Though to his credit, Hamilton warned psychologists of the time not to go by face value alone. “Suppose you are brought face-to-face with the alleged lunatic. If you are shown into a room where he is with others, you may not be able to say at a glance which is the individual, and may not be at liberty to ask. It is something more than awkward to commence a conversation with the wrong person.”

J.R. IDIOCY

PHOTOS: CORBIS (MAIN); DISCOVERY CHANNEL COMMUNICATIONS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

AGE 43

“J.R. IS A CASE WELL KNOWN IN THE LITERATURE OF PSYCHIATRY. HE WEIGHS 72 KG, IS OF SHORT STATURE, AND HIS HEAD IS PERHAPS ONE OF THE SMALLEST REPORTED IN THIS COUNTRY. THE CIRCUMFERENCE FROM A POINT IN FRONT ONE INCH ABOVE THE ROOT OF THE NOSE, TO ONE AT THE LEVEL OF THE OCCIPITAL PROTUBERANCE BEHIND IS 15 INCHES. THIS IS OVER A THICK GROWTH OF SHORT HAIR, AND AT LEAST AN INCH DIFFERENCE MUST EXIST BETWEEN THE TRUE MEASUREMENTS AND THOSE MADE. HIS INTELLIGENCE IS ALMOST NIL. HE HAS BEEN TAUGHT TO SWEAR, AND CAN SAY A FEW WORDS WITHOUT ANY IDEA OF THEIR IMPACT”

A.B. IMBECILITY AGE 25

“REVISED IN THE ASYLUM TWO YEARS BEFORE HIS DEATH IN 1882. HE HAD A SHRILL VOICE AND WAS QUITE EXCITABLE, CRYING AND LAUGHING WITHOUT CAUSE. HE COLLECTED BITS OF PAPER AND STRAW WHICH HE CHEWED, AND KEPT A SUPPLY IN HIS SHOES AND SOCKS. HE WAS SOMETIMES SO VIOLENT AS TO NEED RESTRAINT AND WAS QUITE OFFENSIVE IN HIS HABITS” 76 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

half of them never married. Some were loners or very shy. People who struggled with long-term intimate relationships. But there isn’t one pattern that is so common [it typifies] all serial killers. There are a number of different patterns,” says Stone, a sprightly 80-year-old with deep-set eyes and a shock of white hair.

ADOPTION COMPLEX Stone, who authored The Anatomy of Evil, says studies revealed that about 16 percent of serial killers in the United States were adopted; while adoptees, as a demographic, only make up about two percent of the total population. “That could mean there’s something about the adoption pool,” says Stone, who believes that profiling is not as much help in identifying criminals as a thorough crime scene investigation, backed by the stringent analysis of criminal records of people who’ve committed similar offences.

SERIAL KILLERS ARE OFTEN MALE, FROM BROKEN HOMES, VICTIMS OF ABUSE BY A PARENT AND CHRONIC DRUG AN D ALCOHOL ABUSERS. HALF OF THEM ARE NEVER MARRIED AND ARE EITHER LONERS OR VERY SHY. THOUGH A PARTICULAR PATTERN HASN’T BEEN IDENTIFIED THAT CAN TYPIFY ALL SERIAL KILLERS Vorpagel and Ressler, however, had few earlier profiles to draw upon. What they did have was years of experience and a united viewpoint that Chase — an arsonist and hypochondriac, who believed his heart constantly stopped beating — was a scrawny, tall young loner, dirty, dishevelled, disorganised and living off someone else’s cash. They also offered up a chilling caveat: saying that they believed that he would continue to kill again. “[Profilers] made a map of where

ABOVE A FORENSIC SCIENTIST EXAMINING A FINGERPRINT IN A LABORATORY. FINGERPRINT EXAMINATIONS HAVE BEEN USED FOR MORE THAN 100 YEARS AS A WAY TO ACCURATELY IDENTIFY CRIMINALS

KILLER INSTINCTS

HAMILTON’S TYPES OF INSANITY C.C. MELANCHOLIA ATTONITA AGE 37

“DURATION OF INSANITY SEVEN MONTHS. CAUSE UNKNOWN. AUDITORY HALLUCINATIONS. SHE HEARS VOICES COMMANDING HER NOT TO EAT, AND IT IS OFTEN NECESSARY TO FEED HER WITH THE TUBE. SHE HAS DELUSIONS OF PERSECUTION. HER MOVEMENTS ARE SLUGGISH, AND SHE TAKES NO NOTICE OF THOSE ABOUT HER”

X CHRONIC MELANCHOLIA AGE UNKOWN “X HAS BEEN MELANCHOLIC FOR SOME YEARS, AND THE DISEASE IS DRIFTING INTO DEMENTIA”

E.E. SUBACUTE MANIA AGE 28

1892 THE MURDER

OF TWO CHILDREN IN BUENOS AIRES IS SOLVED BY FINGERPRINT EVIDENCE

“DURATION OF INSANITY SIX YEARS. ORIGINALLY ACUTE MANIA OF A VIOLENT TYPE. CAUSE UNKNOWN. AUDITORY HALLUCINATIONS. SHE HAS COMMUNICATION WITH DIVINE PERSONAGES, AND DELUSIONS OF GRANDEUR, BELIEVING THAT SHE IS QUEEN OF IRELAND. SHE IS REMARKABLY OBSCENE AND ALLUDES TO CARNAL RELATIONS, WHICH ARE OF A PECULIAR KIND”

J.MCK GENERAL PARESIS AGE 37

“HAS BEEN IN THE ASYLUM TWO YEARS. THERE IS NO KNOWN CAUSE OF THE DISEASE. HE HAS HAD DELUSIONS OF WEALTH” 77 OCTOBER 2014

the murders occurred, all of which were within a narrow area. Believing Chase didn’t have a car and walked from block to block, they looked for men who were not married, within a certain age range, kind of peculiar, and jobless,” says Stone, whose career has concentrated on personality extremes, particularly people with antisocial, psychopathic and sadistic tendencies.

10X MORE VIOLENT

PROFILERS AND FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGISTS USE POST-ARREST INTERVIEWS TO GET DETAILS ABOUT THE INDIVIDUAL’S METHODS, MOTIVATION AND BACKGROUND

ACTS ARE COMMITTED BY MEN THAN WOMEN. A DEFICIENCY IN THE PREFRONTAL CORTEX IS LINKED TO VIOLENCE IN MEN

MEN’S BRAINS ARE MORE HARDWIRED TO RECEIVE A BURST OF ENDORPHINS WHEN THEY ENGAGE IN RISKY BEHAVIOUR

Detectives eventually tracked down the 28-year-old (who believed holding oranges above his head aided his body in absorbing vitamin C) to a ramshackle apartment. Its walls, floor, ceiling, refrigerator, and eating and drinking utensils were caked with blood. On the counter was a blender. Reportedly, the Vampire Killer, who was physically abused by his father as a child, had used it to make smoothies from body parts and Coca-Cola.

On a wall calendar, they discovered the word “today” scrawled on the dates of his murders. Future dates, 44 in all, were ominously marked the same way. A jury would find Chase guilty of six counts of first-degree murder after his lawyers failed to sway the presiding judge with an insanity plea, setting him up on a date with a mandatory death sentence. While on death row, Chase granted a series of interviews to Ressler, who later reported that the Vampire Killer had 78 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

PHOTO: CORBIS (BRAIN SCANS)

STONE HAS DEVELOPED A GRADATIONS OF EVIL SCALE, RANKING HOMICIDES ONE TO 22

THE AMYGDALA IS THE REGION RESPONSIBLE FOR HOW WE PROCESS EMOTIONS, PARTICULARLY NEGATIVE ONES. IN MALES, THE AMYGDALA IS LINKED STRONGLY TO MOTOR PARTS OF THE BRAIN — LEADING TO AN EXTERNAL RESPONSE

KILLER INSTINCTS

HAMILTON’S TYPES OF INSANITY J.B. CHRONIC MANIA

RESPONSIBLE FOR FEELINGS OF REMORSE AND SENSITIVITY, THE PREFONTAL CORTEX IS LARGER IN WOMEN THAN MEN

AGE 51 “J.B. HAS BEEN IN THE WARD'S ISLAND ASYLUM FOR 11 YEARS. NO HISTORY OF CAUSE. HE IS INCOHERENT AND EXCITABLE, BUT QUITE TRACTABLE. HAS DELUSIONS THAT HIS BONES ARE ALL BROKEN AND HIS HEAD SMASHED. IS CLOWNISH IN HIS BEHAVIOUR, AND SINGS AT THE TOP OF HIS VOICE. HE IS FOND OF DECORATING HIMSELF WITH RUBBISH AND DIRTY FINERY”

A.W. DEMENTIA

AGE 44 “DURATION OF INSANITY FOUR YEARS. DEMENTIA WAS THE SEQUEL OF ACUTE MELANCHOLIA. HAS HAD VISUAL HALLUCINATIONS, AND SEEN SPECTRES. HAS HAD SUICIDAL TENDENCIES AND HEARD VOICES THAT SAY TO DESTROY HERSELF. VIOLENCE HAS BEEN REMARKABLE. IT IS NECESSARY TO KEEP STRAPPED IN THE CHAIR”

R.P.H. DEMENTIA AGE 36

IN WOMEN, THE AMYGDALA CONNECTS TO THE HYPOTHALAMUS, WHICH CONTROLS BREATHING AND HEART RATE — THIS MAY BE WHY WOMEN ARE MORE LIKELY TO PROCESS ANGER INTERNALLY

MENTAL CLIFFHANGERS Early editions of the FBI’s Crime Classification Manual define a serial killer as a person who has performed three different murders at three different locations, with a cooling-off period in between. In 2005, the FBI modified this to two murders in separate events. The term was coined by FBI agent Robert K. Ressler in the 1970s, referencing the serials shown before Saturday movies: “At the end of each one was a cliffhanger. In dramatic terms, this wasn’t a satisfactory ending… The same dissatisfaction occurs in the mind of serial killers.”

“A STRONG FAMILY HISTORY OF INSANITY, FIVE OF HIS UNCLES BEING INSANE. HE IS PROFOUNDLY DEMENTED, AND IS DIRTY, STUPID AND CARELESS. HIS DISEASE HAS LASTED 19 YEARS, AND FOLLOWED MELANCHOLIA” “IN ACUTE MANIA WE MAY EXPECT TO FIND A RED AND GLAZED TONGUE. VARIOUS PECULIARITIES IN THE APPEARANCE OF THE TEETH HAVE BEEN FOUND AMONG IDIOTS” 79 OCTOBER 2014

PHOTOS: AP (CHARLES NG); GETTY IMAGES (BLOOD STAIN); DAVID MUELHEIMS (LUMINOL)

asked for a radar gun to capture the Nazi aliens he blamed for the murders. He also doled out handfuls of macaroni and cheese to the investigator, which he’d hoarded in his pockets, convinced that prison staffers were working with the Nazis to kill him. Chase never made that date with the gas chamber. He swallowed a hoarded stash of antidepressants and died the day after Christmas, 1980. Today’s profilers lionized in movies such as The Silence of the Lambs and Mindhunter, are lauded as part artist, scientist and savant. But for all the credit heaped on the FBI for its pioneering cathedral of profiling, there are some in the psychology community who question the unit’s scientific credentials. While profilers and forensic psychologists are both used by law enforcement to investigate and map crimes, there are differences in approach and focus. Forensic psychologists hone in on the aftermath of a crime, evaluate a suspect’s mental state, counsel victims and their families, and offer expert testimony of mental capacity at trial. They also work with lawyers on jury selection and witness preparation. Some are employed in prisons, providing therapy, anger management and counselling for patients. Profilers determine a motive and draw up an outline of the offender. They also cooperate with law enforcement agencies such as police departments, the FBI or in private practice, contracting out their expertise to understand the mind and motive of the suspect. The idea is to get inside the skin of an offender by estimating his psychological and sociological makeup. They piece together evidence collected from crime scenes, examine the nature of the crimes, where they were located and the demographic make-up of the victims to build a base from which to draw up a sketch of the individual. Both profilers and forensic psychologists use post-arrest interviews to glean more information about the individual’s methods, motivation and background. “Forensic psychology is like a big umbrella. Underneath there are a few sub-specialities, one of which would be profiling. Forensic psychologists do treatments, evaluations, and psychological, personality and IQ testing,” says Stone. For forensic psychiatrists, the effects of psychological and social trauma and how that impacts brain functionality is 80 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

TOP A FORENSIC TRAINING SESSION INVOLVING SCENEOF-CRIME OFFICERS, WHO ARE WEARING PROTECTIVE CLOTHING TO AVOID CONTAMINATING EVIDENCE AT THE GRAVE OF A VICTIM LEFT BLOOD STAINS ON AN OLD CARPET. ANALYSING SUCH STAINS CAN HELP TO VERIFY OR IDENTIFY A VICTIM’S IDENTITY RIGHT LUMINOL CHEMILUMINESCENCE REACTION. FORENSIC SCIENTISTS USE THE BLUE GLOW TO CHECK FOR BLOOD STAINS AT A CRIME SCENE

KILLER INSTINCTS

the central question when determining the genesis of our actions. The core questions for them in determining a patient’s state of mental health is whether the crime preceded the mental disorder. Is a mental condition present during diagnosis and was it there at the time the crime was committed? If so, how much responsibility could be attached to the offender and what threat does he or she pose in reoffending? Is treatment possible to reduce the risk of reoffending? Most forensic psychologists are doctorate degree holders, who frequently have years of clinical experience before they begin working with law enforcement. Profilers, while they may have psychology degrees, often come from a long history of law enforcement, working violent crime divisions. Profiling is still a relatively new arena with few set boundaries or definitions. However, over the past 20 years, it has developed into a more rigorous science, both in methodological advances and empirical research. “It’s changed rapidly over the decades. [Today], we work in conjunction with scientists, psychiatrists and psychologists to hone our discipline to make sure we're moving in the right direction,” says Gregg McCrary, a retired FBI agent and profiler, who was a pioneer of the Behavioral Science Unit. As a science, criminal psychology is built on the study of the intentions and reactions of criminals, and is closely related to the field of criminal anthropology. It taps into psychological variables such as personality traits, psychopathologies and behaviour patterns, as well as demographic niches such as age, race or geographic location. Investigators use those profiles to narrow down a field of suspects or figure out how to interrogate a suspect already in custody. For its part, investigative profiling utilises psychological theories to analyse mental deficiency such as delusions, personality characteristics like hostility and violent tendencies, criminal thought patterns and character defects. They also use actuarial data such as age, and the stability, or as is often the case, the volatility of the family unit the offender was raised in. But even its own practitioners aren’t always on the same page about the uniform use of methodology, or even terminology. McCrary, for instance, readily admits that some of the FBI unit’s

early work was somewhat hit-or-miss. “Early on it was just a bunch of us [FBI agents] basing our work on our investigative experience,” he says, “and hopefully being right more than we were wrong.” McCrary, however, is quick to point out that the field has improved since then. “Like any discipline, it will become more refined through what we learn. But it will definitely improve. When people look back 50 or 100 years from now, they’ll see we’re in the embryonic stages of development. The difference is: as opposed to a hard science, or biological science like DNA, this is a behavioural science,” says the author of The Unknown Darkness.

PROFILERS DETERMINE A MOTIVE AND DRAW UP AN OUTLINE OF AN OFFENDER. THE IDEA IS TO GET INSIDE THE SKIN OF AN OFFENDER BY ESTIMATING HIS PSYCHOLOGICAL AND SOCIOLOGICAL MAKE-UP McCrary says the public’s perception of profilers as macho super-cops, who go toe-to-toe with some of the world’s most heinous and violent criminals, is far-fetched. According to him, providing strategy for investigators is paramount. The sexier aspects of describing characteristics and traits of an unknown offender, while important, are secondary to the job. “The fights, bombs exploding and the guns drawn is the work of a TV profiler. That’s the biggest myth. We spend a lot of our day sitting quietly and reviewing hundreds of thousands of documents and crime reports,” says McCrary, who has also worked as a threat analyst. “It’s a very analytical process and we are removed from the front line. But I would imagine that would make for a boring TV show.” Still, McCrary says it is not uncommon for profilers and forensic psychologists to reach similar conclusions by employing differing methodologies. “A Rhode Island attorney general asked me to write a report on an individual’s risk of future 81 OCTOBER 2014

dangerousness. I did so based on how he committed the crime, the nature of the crime and the unusual sort of violence involved. A forensic psychologist from Harvard also wrote a risk report. He had interviewed the offender and tested him. We came to the same conclusion, even though we came from different perspectives,” McCrary recalls. While relatively new, the earliest tenuous links to profiling can be traced to 19th-century Italian physician Cesare Lombroso who wrote about his ideas on criminology in The Criminal Man, which classified criminals by sex, age, educational background, physical location and facial characteristics. Lombroso, who had served as a governor of an asylum for the insane, studied 383 Italian inmates before inventing a scale system to formulate theories of criminal behaviour.

PHOTOS: SPL/CLICK PHOTOS (MAIN); GETTY IMAGES (WAX PORTRAITS)

IT IS NOT UNCOMMON FOR PROFILERS AND FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGISTS TO REACH SIMILAR CONCLUSIONS BY EMPLOYING DIFFERENT METHODOLOGIES Based on his studies, which were influenced by social Darwinism and eugenics, he suggested that there were “born criminals” that could be spotted by their appearance, such as a sloping forehead, ears of unusual size, asymmetry of the face and elongated arms. At the end of the 19th century, the UK’s Scotland Yard called on physician Dr Thomas Bond to write a profile on Jack the Ripper, who plied his trade in London’s oft-brutal Victorian slums. Bond believed the Ripper was a “quiet, eccentric, welldressed, middle-aged man”. Later on during the death knell of World War II, the United States Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner to the Central Intelligence Agency, asked another renowned psychiatrist to draw up a profile of Adolf Hitler. Shortly after the Allies claimed victory in what would be the world’s deadliest conflict, at a cost of over 60 million lives, 82 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

LEFT CHARLES NG, WHO WAS FOUND GUILTY OF MURDERING 11 PEOPLE, INCLUDING TWO BABIES, IN A SMALL CALIFORNIAN TOWN IN 1985. HE WAS KEPT IN A CAGE BETWEEN COURT APPEARANCES AS HE WAS CONSIDERED “HIGHLY DANGEROUS”

British psychologist Lionel Haward distributed a bullet-point memo listing the characteristics he thought on-the-run senior Nazi war criminals might display, to differentiate them from the rank-and-file of surrendering German soldiers. But it was the FBI’s opening of the Behavioral Analysis Unit in the 1970s — when psychologists used questionnaires to interview 36 imprisoned serial killers, forming the basis of profiles of future murderers — that is widely viewed as the genesis of contemporary profiling. While profiling has been widely employed in Western countries, it has yet to make much of a dent globally. In most of Asia, profiling has been left on the back-burner in favour of investigative approaches that are more traditional.

“In Europe or North America, they are more scientifically advanced. With all the resources and technology on hand, and the time and money devoted into shaping the profession, I would expect them to be excellent at this kind of thing,” says Dr Lee Mau-sheng, a law professor at Taipei’s National Taiwan University. Lee, who is an expert on criminology, says Asian law enforcement, particularly in Taiwan, has missed opportunities to bring profiling into the investigative fold. “The lack of data collected by the police over the years is directly linked to a failure to produce any type of profiling system in Taiwan. [What has been done], I wouldn't call profiling; it’s more of a description of criminal activities collected by exceptional police or investigators who were careful

KILLER INSTINCTS

THESE WAX PORTRAITS OF CRIMINALS WERE MODELLED IN THE LATE 19TH CENTURY BY LORENZO TENCHINI, WHO STUDIED UNDER LOMBROSO

THE CHARMED LIFE The stereotype is that when a serial killer is caught, his friends and neighbours have no clue, telling press that “he was such a quiet guy”. This has some basis in fact — infamous killer Ted Bundy, for example, was described as intelligent and handsome. In 1978, serial killer Rodney Alcala even appeared on romance TV show The Dating Game. Asked on-camera what his favourite time of the day was, he answered, “The night. Night-time.” Alcala was picked by the girl. “We’re going to have a great time together, Cheryl,” he said. He was arrested a year later.

LEFT A NOTE FROM THE ZODIAC KILLER BOASTING THAT HE HAS MURDERED SEVEN PEOPLE. THE MURDERER, WHO WAS ACTIVE IN CALIFORNIA IN THE 1960S AND 1970S, WAS NEVER CAUGHT 84 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

PHOTOS: CORBIS

ABOVE A FORENSIC SCIENTIST HOLDS A TEST SAMPLE INSIDE A LIQUID CHROMATOGRAPH DUAL MASS SPECTROMETER. THE INSTRUMENT ANALYSES BLOOD SAMPLES TO DETECT DRUG ABUSE

KILLER INSTINCTS

€3 MILLION THE WOMAN WITHOUT A FACE

FOR 15 YEARS, GERMAN POLICE HUNTED “THE WOMAN WITHOUT A FACE”, IDENTIFIED BY HER DNA LEFT AT 40 THEFT AND MURDER SCENES. EVENTUALLY THEY PUT OUT A €3 MILLION (US$5 MILLION) REWARD FOR INFORMATION ON THIS PHANTOM CRIMINAL. IT TURNED OUT THE DNA TRACES ON POLICE COTTON SWABS WERE LEFT BY THE FEMALE TECHNICIAN WHO PREPARED THE SWABS

record their work,” says Lee, a Japaneseeducated professor with a receding hairline and thick square-framed glasses. Behavioural science works to engineer a greater understanding of human behaviour. The FBI took it one step further by trying to understand the who, what, where, why and how of criminal thought, much of it buttressed by on-site criminologists, clinical psychologists’ research and crime analysts. Coursework taught by the unit is intense. Trainees undertake classes in criminal psychology, forensic science, criminal investigative analysis, threat assessment, statement and document analysis, and interview and interrogation procedures.

SUBJECTIVE PROFILING Still, there are rumbles of dissatisfaction from the traditional psychology side of the street. Dr David Canter was an early missionary of British profiling, helping to steer investigators to a violent offender during the mid-1980s. However, Canter, who is today the director of the International Centre for Investigative Psychology at the University of Huddersfield in the United Kingdom, became unhappy about what he perceived as a major limitation of offender profiling: the personal opinions of psychologists. Scientists at Birmingham City University in the United Kingdom claim that offender profiling is “deeply unscientific” and may mislead murder cases. “Behavioural profiling has never led to the direct apprehension of a serial killer, a murderer or a spree killer, so it seems to have no real-world value,” psychologist Craig Jackson was quoted as saying in a recent Guardian newspaper article. According to Forensicpsychology.net, “One of the most persuasive criticisms of criminal profiling is that, while rooted in established practices of psychology and sociology, there is little empirical evidence suggesting that criminal profiles are actually applicable to reality.” “Psychologists have been critical [of our work]. I understand the criticism, and I agree to some extent. We understand our limitations. Its not like we can say, ‘Well this guy drives a red Volvo.’ We can’t say those sorts of things, but what we can talk about is what we’re seeing at the crime and crime scene,” admits McCrary. “I think we have more of an impact than forensic psychologists, who typically have never investigated a crime. We’re able to provide more focus to the investigative direction of the case because we have that experience.” In part at least, a 1990 study by Dr Anthony Pinizzotto of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit, and Dr Norman Finkel of Georgetown University backed up some of the psychologists’ concerns. The pair conducted an experiment, using groups of FBI profilers, police detectives with FBI training, non-trained investigators, clinical psychologists and students as its subjects. Pinizzotto and Finkel gave the groups case files from two previously solved crimes, then asked the subjects to sketch profiles of the offenders. While the FBI profilers wrote more detailed assessments of the perpetrators and were correct more

often for the first case (a rape), they fared no better than the students in terms of accuracy in the second (a murder). Experts do, however, routinely point to tension between law enforcement personnel, with backgrounds in investigations, and psychologists rooted in the academic or clinical worlds. “We look at the facts of every case individually. There is no single answer or formula that fits every case, nor do we have a template that fits every serial killer. What’s more appropriate is to address serial killers in a multidisciplinary way, with law enforcement joining experts in the academic and mental health worlds,” asserts McCrary, a contributing author of Crime Classification Manual: A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes.

PROFILING HAS BEEN WIDELY EMPLOYED IN WESTERN COUNTRIES BUT IS YET TO MAKE A DENT GLOBALLY. IN MOST OF ASIA, PROFILING HAS BEEN LEFT ON THE BACK-BURNER While he respects the work of forensic psychologists, McCrary points to their lack of investigative experience as a roadblock to success. “No one person solves a case. We don’t do our own DNA analysis, for example. It goes to the lab. It’s a collaborative effort. But there’s a difference in interviewing and interrogation. They’re typically interested in diagnosis and treatment. We’re only interested in identifying the person who’s committing these crimes, and getting them off the streets,” say McCrary, who has consulted on thousands of US and international cases. “We deal with the same clientele. Our job is to identify them and bring them to [forensic psychologists] in custody, so they can study them. The difference is: they deal with them in captivity and we deal with them in the wild.” Ruby Lu is a Taipei-based bestselling author of true crime books, such as God’s Black List. 85 OCTOBER 2014

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES

86 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

STRANDED

MAROONED ON AN UNINHABITED ISLAND WITH ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BETWEEN YOU AND THE ELEMENTS, EXCEPT MAYBE COCONUTS THAT ARE CHALLENGING TO BREAK, A MONSTROUSLY LARGE CRAB AND YOUR WITS... COULD YOU SURVIVE AS A CASTAWAY? DANIEL SEIFERT EXPLORES

87 OCTOBER 2014

inally your feet hit sand. You collapse, heaving, and just let the rain tickle your skin. Congratulations. The job you had, the family you loved, your nationality or relationship troubles: none of that matters as of this second. You’re officially a castaway now.

LIVING ON THE EDGE It’s a good thing you kept your shoes on. Paul Hart, a former Royal Navy lieutenant commander, used to run an

88 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

exercise testing people on what bit of kit they would take if their boat was sinking. Most chose the obvious contenders: water, food, something to make a fire with. Not bad picks, but as he told The Telegraph, “The correct answer was a pair of wellies, so that they could wade ashore without getting cut on the coral.” Not only are the rocks razor-sharp, but there are animals which lurk near warm shore waters

that can do a lot of damage. Stonefish rest just under the sand and are impossible to spot, thanks to their mottled, mossy-looking camouflage. Unwittingly step on one, writes one South Pacific expert, and 13 dorsal fin spines will inject a poison “which burns like fire in the blood”. Deaths are rare but can occur without treatment, after hours of swelling, vomiting, seizures and paralysis.

PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES (MAIN)

Ker-sploosh! With a percussive thump, your body hits the water. Waves boil over the surface, licking your eyes painfully. The salt whips your lips, your limbs flail like a rag doll and it’s a struggle to choke down air. Around you floats the pitiful debris of your sailboat. As it sinks like a stone, you can just make out the gaping maw where coral has punched a hole. In seconds, its hull disappears. Behind it, the lightning illuminates a strip of grey 200 metres away. A beach. An island. Land! Kicking weakly as your shoes weigh you down and your clothes balloon heavily in the surf, you attempt to close the distance.

STRANDED

1,500 TRAVELLING ILLEGALLY AND IN UNSAFE BOATS, REFUGEES ARE PARTICULARLY PRONE TO BEING SHIPWRECKED. IN 2011 ALONE, 1,500 PEOPLE DROWNED OR WENT MISSING TRYING TO CROSS THE MEDITERRANEAN

That small scrape on your calf might not look like much in comparison, but it could kill you just the same, as Tom Hanks can testify. While filming Cast Away, where he plays FedEx troubleshooter Chuck Noland, who survives a plane crash in the Pacific, Hanks got a small cut on his leg too. Surrounded by hundreds of crew members and on a tight schedule, he thought nothing of it — until it started getting tender.

“I went to the doctor,” he recalled in a BBC interview, “who took one look and said, ‘I have to put you in the hospital because we have to get this infection out of you before it poisons your blood and you die’.” Film production was shut down for three weeks. Let that be a reminder. You’re in a humid environment, where everything from abrasive sand to sunburns and blisters can get infected quicker than you can say ‘fleshMERCHANT SEAMAN POON LIM SURVIVED FOR AN ASTONISHING 133 DAYS AT SEA IN 1942.

eating bacteria’. So wash that cut in salt water regularly, and keep an eye on it. It’s also time to notice your surroundings. The rain has slowed to a drizzle. The sun is a few minutes from rising, with a sliver of gold winking over the gunmetal grey horizon. Just enough light to explore by. Unfortunately, there’s not much to explore. Less than five football pitches in size, your new home is a ring of pristine beach dotted

89 OCTOBER 2014

with palm trees, encircling a mound of jungle. A typical Pacific island. And the world is littered with them. Indonesia alone boasts about 17,508 landmasses sprayed around the equator. The number varies due to tides, tsunamis, and tectonic movements. Only 6,000 are inhabited. Less than 9,000 are even named. Still, you sigh, if you’re going to die here, at least you’ll die on a cliché.

DESERTED ISLANDS ARE NOT ALL ABOUT PALM TREES AND BEACHES. COVERED IN CORALS, WITH TARANTULAS AND SNAKES CRAWLING ABOUT, THESE ARE NEVER PLACES TO UNDERMINE These are dark thoughts, but they are things many before you have felt. Steve Callahan can vouch for that as he recounts his experiences to DCM. He drifted for 76 days on a life raft in the Atlantic after his ship was sunk. In shock, your brain is abuzz with thoughts, none helpful. “You go through all your failures and it can be very depressing,” he says. “A lot of people perish in that period. Slowly, but surely, you progress to a survival routine of adaptation, where you can probably survive indefinitely.”

PALM TREE PURGATORY And yet, the idea of living by yourself on a desert island is a beloved societal fantasy. Just how well-loved can 90 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

perhaps be explained by a radio broadcast that blared out to Londoners on January 29, 1942, from a BBC studio that was half in ruins. Britain was under fierce bombing from the German Luftwaffe when Desert Island Discs hit the airwaves. Its construct was simple, an interviewer marooned a celebrity on a fictional island. The catch was that they could take with them eight tracks of music, a luxury item and a book. At a time of severe rationing, winter weather and the imminent threat of Nazi invasion, the calmness of a tropical island was a heavenly appeal to listeners. “Another was the subtext of self-sufficiency,” noted a New Yorker article recently, celebrating the show’s 70-year anniversary. “And in that respect, perhaps, every listener was a stoical castaway on the desert island that was Great Britain.” Adventurer Bear Grylls was quick to point out that these spaces can be far less paradisiacal than they seem though — ironically, while he was a guest on Desert Island Discs. “I think people often think desert islands are all palm trees and beaches. I was above one the other day and from the air it looked incredible. And it was just covered in coral, with snakes and tarantulas, and guarded by sharks like a natural fortress. And you think, ‘This is why it’s uninhabited!’” They are not, he says, places to underestimate. “But therein lies the challenge. It’s about finding fresh water and assessing your options. Do you go, or do you stay?” Unclear as to where exactly you are, and with no materials to build a raft with, you opt to stay. There’s some water pooling in an old leaf which you greedily suck up, but it’s not enough. Further

TWO TONS YOUR NEXT BEACH HOLIDAY MAY INVOLVE FISH FAECES. THE PARROTFISH SCRAPES ALGAE FROM CORAL REEFS TO EAT. EXCRETED AS SAND, IT ENDS UP ON BEACHES WORLDWIDE. THE FISH CAN EXPEL TWO TO THREE TONS OF SAND A YEAR

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PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES (MAIN, BOTTOM RIGHT)

up from the beach, there’s a large patch of thick grass, still wet with evening dew. Taking off your T-shirt, you wrap it around your ankle and stride back and forth for several minutes. When done, your shirt is wet enough that you can gratefully suck the moisture from the cotton. Next, shelter. Twisting dry palm leaves in your hand, you chew your lip and think. The sun has started to dapple the water, causing flashes that make it difficult to see. What’s that thin form twisting in the water? You sprint to the water, scrambling for the whiteand-blue nylon that’s bobbing away. A rope from your boat. You return to the shady copse, and lean against a palm. The rope in one hand, the palm in the other. And that gives you an idea. Ten minutes later, you’ve tied the rope between two trunks three metres apart. Having scavenged palm leaves and threaded them together, you knot them to the rope. Voila. You have a simple tent-like structure. Home. Just as you’re wiping sweat from your forehead and congratulating yourself, there is a heavy thunk that cannonballs from one of the trees, exploding like shrapnel through your dried roof. A coconut. Though it could have split open your skull like an overripe melon, it is also the best thing that could have happened to you. ABOVE THE REPUBLIC OF FIJI ISLANDS IS MADE UP OF AN ARCHIPELAGO OF ABOUT 322 ISLANDS LEFT DRIED COCONUT MEAT HAS A HIGH FAT CONTENT, UP TO 64 PERCENT, AND IS PERFECT SURVIVAL FOOD — IF YOU CAN GET IT OPEN RIGHT JUAN FERNANDEZ ISLAND, OFF THE COAST OF CHILE, IS ALSO KNOWN AS ROBINSON CRUSOE ISLAND

NATURE’S BOUNTY On a warm and moonless night in August 1943, a US Navy Patrol Torpedo boat was motoring around a strait south of the Solomon Islands. In the pitch dark, at the height of war in the Pacific theatre, anything could happen. And it did. The Japanese destroyer Amagiri rammed the small craft, leaving it a sinking, 91 OCTOBER 2014

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burning hulk. Alone and wounded, the remaining crew swam for an islet over five kilometres away. The commander moved easily in the water. He’d been on the swim team in Harvard, and was now towing a wounded crew member by a belt clamped soggily in his teeth. They eventually made land, surviving for days on coconuts and some Japanese tins of water and candy that had washed up on shore. There they also encountered two native scouts for the Allies. How should the weak Americans get a message to their command? Biuku Gasa, one of the locals, slapped a green coconut husk into the lieutenant’s hand. The young officer was able to scratch a message, which eventually led to their rescue.

THROUGHOUT HIS REMARKABLE JOURNEY, THIS ASIAN SAILOR RACKED UP A LOT OF ACHIEVEMENTS — SUCH AS BEING THE FIRST RECORDED JAPANESE PERSON TO ARRIVE IN AMERICA

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B A COCONUT, AKA THE 'THE TREE OF LIFE' IS PACKED GREAT PACIFIC GARBAGE PATCH ESTIMATES OF SIZE RANGE FROM 700,000 WITH 9,500 SQUARE KILOMETRES (270,000 SQ MI) CALORIES OF TO MORE THAN 15,000,000 SQUARE KILOMETRES (5,800,000 SQ MI), UP TO ENERGY. THE 8.1% OF THE SIZE OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN LEAVES AND HUSKS CAN BE ALEXANDER SELKIRK FOUR YEARS IN ISOLATION FASHIONED FAMOUS CASTAWAY ALEXANDER SELKIRK, WHO INSPIRED THE MAPPING MISERY INTO CLOTHING NOVEL ROBINSON CRUSOE, WAS PUT ASHORE AN UNINHABITED ISLAND OFF THE COST OF CHILE. FOOD WAS NEVER A PROBLEM FOR OR A HAT TO HIM, THANKS TO THE FUR SEALS AND GOATS ROAMING THE ISLAND OCCURING CENTURIES APART, THESE FOUR CASTAWAYS SHARE SHIELD YOU A COMMON CORE OF STRENGTH, FROM THE SUN DESPITE THEIR DIFFERING CIRCUMSTANCES

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That coconut later sat proudly on the Oval Office desk. The lieutenant was John Francis Kennedy, who was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for his actions. Asked how he had become a hero, Kennedy later replied, “It was involuntary. They sank my boat.” But the consequences of the event were more far-reaching

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POON LIM

B 133 DAYS ON A LIFE RAFT SO INSPIRING WAS HIS TALE THAT THE US NAVY MADE A FILM OF HIS EXPLOITS TO DRUM UP RECRUITMENT. LIM HIMSELF TRIED TO JOIN UP BUT WAS REJECTED — FOR HAVING FLAT FEET

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PHOTOS: GETTY IMAGES (MAIN); REUTERS (MASAFUMI NAGASAKI); AFP (NONA CHILDREN)

than simple decorations, as the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum explains. The story was picked up by The New Yorker and Reader’s Digest. “It followed Kennedy into politics and provided a strong foundation for his appeal as a leader.” If you can make it on a desert island, it seems, you can make it in The White House. Especially if you have coconuts. There’s a reason Cocos Nucifera L is called ‘The Tree of Life’. A kilogram of dried coconut meat is packed with 9,500 calories of energy. The leaves and husks can be fashioned into clothing or a hat to shield you from the sun, or used as kindling for fire. The watery liquid inside is like gold in a survival situation. Sterile, full of vitamins and minerals, it’s also an isotonic with a similar balance of salts to human blood. When hundreds of people were left stranded and dehydrated after the 2005 Asian tsunami, many turned to coconut water as a clean source of nourishment. One victim, clad only in his underwear, lived on nothing but the fruit for 25 days in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago. So if you’ve got coconuts, you’re laughing. If you can get one open, that is. There’s

a reason Cast Away includes a laughable scene where a newly stranded Tom Hanks tries in vain to crack the nuts, even hurling them against walls with howls of rage. Bill Broyles, the film’s screenwriter, stranded himself on an island of Mexico to get into the mind of a survivor, and found it equally difficult. “Everything you see on Cast Away I had to do," he tells DCM. "I had to figure out how to open a coconut, I had to make a stone knife by chipping edges off, make shelter, sharpen a stick and catch stingrays.” More on that later, though.

CHINESE-BORN POON LIM WAS YANKING SHARKS ABOARD AND DRINKING THE BLOOD FROM THEIR ORGANS, TO SUPPLEMENT THE RAIN HE STORED IN A TEN-GALLON CONTAINER For now, you’re hungry, and the smooth, heavy coconut you’ve mashed against a rock countless times

MORE REAL-LIFE CASTAWAYS

VOLUNTARY

INVOLUNTARY

MASAFUMI NAGASAKI IT’S UNCLEAR IF THIS JAPANESE MAN IS STILL ALIVE — THE LAST REPORTS OF THE HARDY HERMIT ARE FROM 2012, WHEN THIS THEN 76-YEAR-OLD WAS THE ONLY INHABITANT OF SOTOBANARI ISLAND, LOCATED BETWEEN JAPAN AND TAIWAN. HE HAS LIVED THERE, TOTALLY NAKED AND BRAVING INSECTS AND TYPHOONS, FOR TWO DECADES — ALTHOUGH HE DOES THROW ON CLOTHES FOR A WEEKLY BOAT TRIP TO PICK UP SUPPLIES, MAINLY RICE CAKES. APART FROM WANTING TO GET AWAY FROM IT ALL, NAGASAKI’S MOTIVES ARE SIMPLE: SOTOBANARI IS A NICE PLACE TO DIE, HE TOLD REUTERS. “IT HADN’T REALLY OCCURRED TO ME BEFORE HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO CHOOSE THE PLACE OF YOUR DEATH. BUT TO DIE HERE, SURROUNDED BY NATURE — YOU JUST CAN’T BEAT IT, CAN YOU?”

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IT’S ESTIMATED THAT HALF THE FISH REMAINING ON EARTH SWIM IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN. OVER 4,000 FISH SPECIES INHABIT PACIFIC REEFS, WHICH COULD BE 10 TIMES MORE THAN THE DIVERSITY OF OTHER OCEANS

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is a miniature Fort Knox. Impervious. But for every problem, Mother Nature has a solution, and in this case, it’s the coconut crab. A beast of a crustacean, it can weigh over four kilograms. Its beady eyes weigh you up before crossing to the tree and climbing to the top. There, it snips off a coconut with its powerful claws. Climbing back down, it pulls back the husk from the end before piercing its soft eye portion with its pointed walking leg. Nabbing it from the animal, you drink down the sweet juice. Just as sweet is another discovery. Some berries, lurking in a bush. But how do you know if they’re edible? Hunger is gnawing at your belly, but the threat of poisoning seems worse. So first, you rub the berry against your skin, and wait a few minutes. When no rash develops, you rub some gently against your lips. Still no reaction. Then your tongue. Finally you try a small portion. With some nourishing liquid and food in your belly, your body has yet to start burning its own fat. When it does begin to eat its own carbohydrates, your body produces acetone, which is excreted in the urine and exhaled in the breath, producing a smell like nail polish remover.

That doesn’t seem to have happened to Alexander Selkirk, one of the most famed castaways of all time. It was his adventures that inspired Daniel Defoe’s novel Robinson Crusoe. In 1704, the English sailor demanded to be put ashore on an uninhabited island off the coast of Chile, after a fight with the captain. He took with

though Selkirk notes the latter “occasion’d a looseness in his bowels”. So he mainly stuck to his favourite: goat broth with turnips, watercress, pimento pepper and cabbage palm. Hundreds of goats roamed the island, and at first he shot them with his musket. When ammunition ran out, he chased them down.

him some clothing, bedding, a musket and powder, some tools, a Bible and tobacco. And incredibly, during his four-year ordeal, finding food was the least of his worries. For a start, the island was teeming with roaring fur seals, so much so that a buccaneer who visited the island 20 years earlier noted, “We were forced to kill them to set our feet on shore.” There was lobster, and fish,

Then he started mildly crippling young goats, so he could tackle them easier as they aged. The goats gave him everything he needed, including skins for clothing, but they also nearly killed him. Sprinting after a tenacious member of the herd one day, he and the goat tumbled off a cliff. Selkirk would certainly have died — had he not landed on the unfortunate animal.

THE NONA CHILDREN

SENATOR JEFF FLAKE

AGED 10, 11 AND 15, SIBLINGS NORITA, STEPHEN AND ELLIS NONA SURVIVED FOR SIX DAYS ON A SHARK-INFESTED ISLAND. WHEN THEIR FAMILY BOAT CAPSIZED ON ITS WAY TO THURSDAY ISLAND IN THE TORRES STRAIT, SEPARATING AUSTRALIA AND PAPUA NEW GUINEA, THEY SWAM FOR A GRUELLING THREE HOURS TO REACH A ROCKY OUTCROP OF LAND ON REMOTE MATU ISLAND. THEY SURVIVED ON DRIED COCONUTS, PLUMS AND OYSTERS BEFORE BEING RESCUED

IN 2013, THIS ARIZONA SENATOR WENT ON A FOURDAY SURVIVALIST HOLIDAY WITH HIS TWO TEENAGED SONS. THEY TRAVELLED 8,300 KILOMETRES TO A REMOTE ISLAND IN THE NORTHERN PACIFIC OCEAN, WITH NO FOOD OR WATER. THEY SPEARED FISH AND DESALINATED THEIR OWN WATER. FLAKE SAID, “THIS OUGHT TO BE MANDATORY. WE’D ALL DISCOVER THAT NO MAN IS AN ISLAND.”

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A TRUE DESERT ISLAND HAS NO FRESH WATER AT ALL, SAYS SAS MAN IAN CRADDOCK. HE RUNS A COURSE FOR HIS COMPANY, BUSHMASTERS, WHERE PEOPLE PAY FOR THE EXPERIENCE OF BEING TAUGHT SURVIVAL SKILLS AND STRANDED IN DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS. “ONLY ABOUT 70 PERCENT MAKE IT THROUGH TWO DAYS. BUT WE HAVE NEVER HAD A GIRL FAIL,” HE GRINS. “THEY SEEM TO BE MORE MENTALLY ROBUST, ABLE TO THINK THROUGH THE PROBLEM.” GUYS, MEANWHILE, JUST GET ALL MACHO AND “BEFORE THEY KNOW IT THEY ARE KNACKERED, DEHYDRATED, GETTING A HEADACHE. THE KEY IS TO HAVE A STRONG MENTAL ATTITUDE, NOT JUST TOUGHING THROUGH THINGS, BUT MAKING A PLAN. THOSE WITH STRICT MENTAL RESILIENCE TEND TO FAIR BEST.”

PHOTO: CORBIS (MAIN)

MORE REAL-LIFE CASTAWAYS

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ROBERT JEFFREY

PHILIP ASHTON

IT’S UNCLEAR HOW COMMON MAROONING WAS AS A PUNISHMENT IF A PIRATE DISOBEYED ORDERS. EVEN THE BRITISH ROYAL NAVY IS THOUGHT TO HAVE MADE USE OF IT. SOME UNLUCKY VICTIMS WERE GIVEN A PISTOL WITH A SINGLE SHOT, SHOULD THEY WISH TO END THEIR MISERY. IN THE EARLY 1800S, SEAMAN ROBERT JEFFREY WAS MAROONED ON A BARREN CARIBBEAN ISLAND AFTER HE WAS CAUGHT STEALING A CUP OF BEER. HE WAS PICKED UP EIGHT DAYS LATER

WHEN THIS FISHERMAN WAS CAPTURED BY PIRATES OFF THE COAST OF NOVA SCOTIA IN 1723, HE WAS OFFERED TO BECOME A PIRATE, OR DIE. THE 19-YEAROLD CHOSE THE FORMER. EIGHT MONTHS LATER HE ESCAPED WHEN THE CREW ANCHORED OFF AN ISLAND IN HONDURAS. ASHTON INNOCENTLY WANDERED OFF SAYING HE WAS LOOKING FOR COCONUTS. HE WAS FOUND — ALIVE — 16 MONTHS LATER

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“Loneliness is something people fear — but solitude is something they desire.” At least Lucy Irvine had another person to share her experience with. Selkirk was alone. Sure, he could start a fire using his musket flints. But the smoke might get him noticed — and killed. Spain was an enemy nation at the time, and if they caught an Englishman, he would no doubt be tortured and killed. Can you imagine catching sight of sails (freedom!), then having your heart sink when you realise you can’t risk being seen? It

SO WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH THE UNOPENED PACKET OF BATTERIES AND THE HANDFUL OF STEEL WOOL THAT WASHED UP ON YOUR ISLAND? TOUCH A THIN STRAND OF THE STEEL TO BOTH TERMINALS OF THE BATTERY AND IT WILL SPARK INSTANTLY happened to Selkirk more than once. On one occasion he was chased by Spaniards, who he avoided by scrambling up a tree. While searching for him, an enemy sailor urinated against the trunk he was nesting in. Though frightened, Selkirk was grateful to view another human being again. It may have taken weeks for him to feel the gnawing 98 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

ache of loneliness. But nearly three centuries later, on Bill Broyles’ Mexican island, it took just a few days. Though there were two survival experts keeping a distant eye on him, he didn’t want to get in contact with them. He wanted to properly mirror his character’s desolation. Like Selkirk, Broyles had mastered the survival part. His body was relatively safe. Now his mind was in distress, especially after night fell. “I watched the stars go around the North Pole, and the silence. And I suddenly realised I was really lonely. I was really thinking, oh wow, this is not just about physical survival. You have to figure out how to survive emotionally and psychologically too.” The next morning, help came. “I went down to the beach and there was this volleyball which had washed up.” It was the genesis for one of the most memorable inanimate characters in movie history: Wilson, named after the branded, bloody piece of sporting equipment that keeps Tom Hanks company. “I didn’t daub blood on it like we did on the movie, but I did shells, and made a face, and started talking to it. And I felt a lot better. I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is really it, you do have to have a human connection’.” Meeting Wilson was also the moment the writer found the key to Cast Away — creating that sense of humanity was about more than physical survival. “Until you have something or someone to communicate with, there’s nothing to validate you as a human being, more than just surviving on an animal level.” Steven Callahan’s 76day ordeal affirms much the same thing. But at the end of the day, he says, you

90 PERCENT OF THE GARBAGE IN OUR OCEANS IS PLASTIC. THE DECOMPOSITION RATE OF A PLASTIC BAG IS 10 TO 20 YEARS. A PLASTIC BOTTLE TAKES ABOUT 450 YEARS

are in control. “You can create meaning in whatever circumstances you’re in, whether you’re the richest man on the planet, or down in the depths of horror.” We all know this within ourselves, he insists — it’s why people do extreme sports. “We seek this exploratory experience, where we’re not sure where the edge is," he says. “For survivors like me it’s the ultimate example," he tells DCM. “Where life gets down to the real bare bones. You can prioritise things in a way you weren’t

ABOVE BILL BROYLES, THE SCREENWRITER OF THE FILM CAST AWAY, STRANDED HIMSELF ON AN ISLAND OFF MEXICO TO GET INTO THE MIND OF A SURVIVOR WHEN WRITING THE SCRIPT TOP RUBBISH WASHING UP ON SHORE COULD PROVIDE VALUABLE SURVIVAL TOOLS, IF USED CREATIVELY

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A combination of transport, natural disasters and mankind’s greed will likely ensure that you have resources to work with. The 2011 tsunami that devastated Japan swept 25 million tons of debris into the Pacific Ocean. And not just paper bags. We’re talking cars, houses, fridges, even entire petrol stations. Meanwhile, between 2011 and 2013, around 2,684 shipping containers were lost at sea each year. In 2006, an overturned cargo container deposited thousands of packages of Doritos corn chips onto a North Carolina beach. Armies of seagulls descended on the packages that had been ripped open, while chortling humans filled their arms with the airtight, crinkling balloons of unopened ones. Then there’s the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Orbiting the ocean like a rotting sun, this swirling, moving island of floating trash is hard to measure. Most scientists estimate that it is twice the size of Texas. So if something unfathomably large drifts past your islet, you know what it is.

PHOTOS: CORBIS (MAIN); AFP (RABBIT ISLAND); GETTY IMAGES (WILLIAM BROYLES JR)

THE CREATIVE SPARK able to before — to see what’s important in your life as opposed to the trivial. It’s a horrible experience. But if you’re lucky enough to come out alive, it’s also a very powerful one.”

ONE MAN'S TRASH Several weeks into your own trial, you are feeling the ache of loneliness too. Tears come often, and easily. You’re talking to yourself in a vain effort to hear a voice, even your own. Perhaps you’re even snatching snippets of Beatles songs, like Callahan did.

But a saviour like Wilson can appear in more ways than one. In fact, here are ten: cigarettes, caps or lids, plastic bottles, plastic bags, food wrappers and containers, cups and cutlery, glass bottles, straws, drink cans, paper bags. These, according to figures from the Ocean Conservancy clean-up projects, are the ten most common items that make up 80 percent of the rubbish that washes ashore around the world, clogging up beaches in their millions. To former SAS man and survival expert Ian Craddock,

this list is like a Christmas bonanza — and not just because Peter the plastic bottle could soon become your best friend. “All trash can be useful,” he tells DCM. “Dark plastics like old slippers or tyres burn a thick black smoke perfect for signal fires. Anything that floats can be used to set fish traps, anything that burns can help get a fire going. And anything waterproof can catch rainwater or keep the sun off you.” For now, look at every object as a potential resource, and not just as something messing up the beach.

So what will you do with the unopened packet of batteries and handful of steel wool that washed up on your island? Use them together and you could have a fire in seconds. Touch a thin strand of the steel to both terminals of the rectangular battery, and it will instantly spark. How many of us today know that primal jolt of pleasure from creating fire? Similarly, watching Tom Hanks make creative use of the random FedEx boxes he scavenges is one of the pleasures of Cast Away. It reminds us that we puny creatures survive thanks to 99 OCTOBER 2014

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THREE ISLANDS: GOOD, BAD AND UGLY

GOOD: RABBIT ISLAND

You wouldn’t think a spot the Japanese used to test lethal gas during World War Two would be so cute. Over 6,000 tons of gas were manufactured on Okunoshima, and tested on rabbits. When the island was abandoned, the rabbits just kept on breeding, and now they are literally everywhere. BAD: SNAKE ISLAND

“A deserted island where the forest floor writhes with the world’s most venomous vipers. A fisherman found dead on his boat, its deck awash with his blood. A lighthouse keeper and his family massacred in a nocturnal snake invasion of their isolated cottage home.” This is Ilha de Queimada Grande, or Snake Island, as described by Forests. org (a pro-ecology site, we should point out). It’s thought that there is at least one snake per square metre on this island, which is located off the coast of Brazil, near Sao Paulo. No wonder the Brazilian Navy has banned travel to this nightmare zone.

UGLY: SNAKE-MOUSE ISLAND

Think Ilha de Queimada Grande, but with dead, poisonous mice raining from the sky. Andersen Air Force Base on the island of Guam is an American stronghold — but an invasive army of brown tree snakes don’t care about that, with roughly two million of them slithering about like they own the place. To deal with them, the US has, on several occasions, parachuted thousands of dead mice laced with toxins, in hopes that the snakes will pounce on the easy prey. If that’s not creepy enough, the snakes have also killed off many of Guam’s birds, which has led to an explosion of the spider population. Arachnids, snakes and rats, oh my. 100 DISCOVERY CHANNEL MAGAZINE INDIA

the most beautiful, complex thing in the world: the human brain. Right? Broyles laughs. “Well, I wish I’d said it as eloquently as you just did. Put that in quotes and attribute it to me! But yes, you’ve nailed it.” How did he decide what assortment of objects the character would end up with? “The thing was to think of things that were the most unlikely, and seemingly useless,” he explains. Like ice skates, or a dress with ballerina lace on it, or video cassettes. Or divorce papers — a symbol of how disconnected this modern man now is from society. What many would view as useless junk becomes lifesaving to the character, Broyle says. “That’s the ingenuity of evolution. Taking things, and making tools.” Once the character manages that, and the film cuts to the future to reveal a tanned, muscled outdoorsman years later — well, you’ve got a metaphor for the rise of humanity, he explains. “He has become an island creature. Everything is easy for him: catching fish, surviving. He has recreated his world on the walls of caves. It’s taking this civilised guy back to the beginning, and building up civilisation on his own.” Connecting with nature. Taming the elements. Crafting fire. Expression through art. As such, the story of desert island survival is, in a nutshell, also the story of mankind. In fact, we have used islands to represent countless lessons. Against their isolated backdrop, morality sharpens like crystal. In William Golding’s classic novel Lord of the Flies, the antics of stranded schoolboys represent the thin veneer between civilisation and savagery. Elsewhere, islands can be an allegory about depleting natural resources. Or the frequent settings for gag cartoons, or a first date conversation starter (“What’s your desert island food?”) And sometimes, the story of a real castaway, perhaps with an added pinch of fiction, shows how small our world really is. Take Chunosuke Matsuyama, who went on a foolhardy voyage to find treasure on a Pacific island

in 1784. When his crew became shipwrecked, he carved a message on a piece of wood and cast it into the sea. Just over 150 years later, the message washed up on shore — supposedly, in the same village where Matsuyama was born.

THE END Ker-sploosh! A small thunk, thinner than the crash you made when you jumped ship nearly a year ago, hammers against the water. Your spear ripples back and forth on a skewered fish. Practice has made perfect. You can hurl your sharpened stick and be certain of nailing a victim half the time. Sweat dapples down your back, now nutbrown from the sun. You tread through the shallow water, the dying fish thrashing against your shoulder. Your shoes rotted away long ago. When you lay your catch down on the shore, you will let a few ants crawl over it. Some fish can contain the toxin ciguatera, you recall from a documentary, so you ape a technique from Grand Cayman Islander fisherman. If ants nibble the fish and survive, the islanders judged it safe to eat. A small smile crosses your lips. It would be ridiculous to say you’re happy. But there is pride that, like so many others before you, the will to survive has given you skills you never knew you had. Then a sting blooms against your foot like lightning. The pain is unreal, and you gasp, hobbling the last few feet to dry land. It burns like fire in the blood. A stonefish. Fortunately, like many sea animals, the neurotoxin of the stonefish is protein-based. It’s actually fairly easy to treat, if you do it quickly enough. Holding the injured area in a pail of very hot water for about 30 minutes will usually help coagulate the protein, and destroy the venom. Unfortunately, your knowledge only runs so far. You collapse in the sand, not far from where you arrived in that storm so many months ago. It’s a harsh and tragic truth, but desert island adventures don’t always end with a rescue.

WHAT’S ON THIS MONTH ON DISCOVERY CHANNEL

Marooned In a brand new series Guinness World Recordsetting adventurer and survivalist Ed Stafford is back in MAROONED – an all-new, ultimate test of human endurance. Each of this nine-part series leaves Ed stranded for 10 days in a different remote location – Borneo, Thailand, Australia, Botswana, Venezuela and Romania, amongst others – with no food, no water and not even a knife. Ed is left with only video equipment to document his experiences tackling some of the most extreme environments. AIRS EVERY MONDAY TO FRIDAY 8 PM STARTING 13 OCTOBER

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WHAT'S ON

Life on Fire LIFE ON FIRE explores the human, social and economic impact of volcanic eruptions across the globe. One of the most spectacular and powerful forces on our planet - volcanoes can create new land, change landscapes and can also destroy civilisations. Yet, despite the dangers, societies around the world have chosen to settle at the fertile feet of active volcanoes. This incredible programme investigates the work of prominent scientists and volcanologists tasked with protecting those who live beneath the Earth’s fire. AIRS EVERY THURSDAYS 9 PM STARTING 2 OCTOBER

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How It’s Made: Dream Cars Picture your dream car: a Maserati or maybe the Audi R8. Have you ever wondered just how that incredible machine was made? Join the classic HOW IT’S MADE crew as they go around the world to the birthplaces of your favourite cars. Each episode will reveal their inner workings and gorgeous exteriors with amazing access to their factories and test labs. AIRS EVERY MONDAY TO THURSDAY 7 PM STARTING 13 OCTOBER

India Living Traditions INDIA LIVING TRADITIONS will showcase facets of India’s vibrant cultural practices, fascinating living traditions and unique art forms. The programme will take viewers on explorations across India, revealing intriguing aspects of some of India’s lesser known communities, customs, myths, folklore, festivals, performing arts and crafts, topography and architecture. The programme covers the intriguing and detailed aspect of Theyyam of Kerala, Patua of Bengal, the Rural Olympics of Punjab. PREMIERES IN OCTOBER 2014

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WHAT'S ON

Gold Fever In this mini-series, viewers follow the story of the California Gold Rush from its very beginning, when rumours of easy riches set off a threeyear hunt for gold that would propel America to greatness. As the men of Boston Company descended on California, they discovered the gold rush wasn’t quite what they expected. Violence, greed and chaos took over, as tens of thousands of miners battled each other over the same small fortune of buried treasure. AIRS EVERY FRIDAY 9 PM STARTING OCTOBER 10

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